Ebola Autobiography of a Vampire
by swisstony
Summary: Femmeslash: D Anthrax and Ebola, think goth Detectives with these fine gothic ladies: D It's a work in progress, reviews r very much appreciated:
1. La Nuit

I decided probably before I should have before I was ready, that I would never get married

**Okay so not sure what I'm gonna do with this it has no real plot at the mo: D**

**But I hope u will enjoy it. It's gonna be Goth Detectives with Anthrax and Ebola: D This is Ebola's POV**

**I've also stolen quite a bit of this from Hariette Wilson memoirs, cus I'm doing her n Beau Brummell 4 my dissertation n I can't get them out of my head: D**

**The chapter title is obviously inspired by the **_**Robots in Disguise**__**La Nuit **_**which I can't stop listening 2…lol…**

**Okay soooo this is rubbish…: D Soz 4 inflicting this on u all: D**

**So I don't own Anthrax or Ebola and I don't own Russell Brand…**

I decided probably before I should have before I was ready, that I would never get married. It wasn't so much a decision as a firm knowledge, that I would never share my life with another human being in such a conventional manner. My parents were married and it only brought them both misery. I hate, hated my Father. Not because he was cruel he was never cruel to me, but because he was too much like me he was a mirror in, which I did not wish to look into. My Father was an inconstant philandering Swiss watch maker; yes I know what you are thinking it is stereotypical. My Mother had a stocking dyeing business, I adore stockings even now. I had over a dozen brothers and sisters, but I was only really close to three of my siblings Hariette, Fanny and Sophia. Of course they are all dead now. We weren't poor, but we weren't rich my parents had the mis-fortune of breeding children who stubbornly refused to die in infancy. My sister Fanny was the first to leave she ran away with one of our Father's rich clients. Hariette followed taking flight with a neighbour. And then one day it was my turn. I was an adventurer. I held fast to the decision I had made in childhood, you see marriage was really the only option for a girl like me then marriage or teaching, and I knew nothing. I wanted to learn I have a thirst for knowledge, but I had no tools at my disposal. So I ran away not far I was born and raised in London. I was reunited with my wayward sisters and like them I became a courtesan.

I know what you are thinking, but you are wrong I was never; have never been a prostitute. I was a courtesan I was never paid for sex, and I never had more than one lover at a time. My lovers enjoyed my company paid my bills, bought my clothes, cancelled my debts but never directly gave me money. It's just a rule; it's like being half a prostitute half a mistress a little bit of both, and then again neither. Modern people struggle to understand these things. All people are modern.

I have always been a creature of the night. As a courtesan my social calendar only really began at night, theatres, and parties. I would go to bed a dawn and wake just as the sun was setting; a routine, which I keep religiously too even now. It's not easy to be a courtesan there's more than just sex involved; you can have sex with anyone; a courtesan has to posses something, which grabs you which attracts you and calls you back until you finally grow bored. You have to be able to talk and know when to keep quite, you have to be witty and bright but also breezy; you are after all only entertainment.

I am a naturally quite person not that I can't hold my own in a conversation, it's just I prefer to hold back from the action and watch. I like to see everything; to know everything. Watching someone only for a few moments you can learn almost everything you will ever need to know about that individual. The life I live it is important to know how people will react to me. Plus I have Anthrax with me and she's more than capable of doing most of the talking for both of us.

It's Anthrax who inspired me to write this, these little scribbles of mine. She turned to me one night and said casually, as casually as Anthrax could ever say anything to anyone; _'if you're so fucking bored, why don't you write a bloody autobiography like Russell Brand!'_

So that is what this is, my autobiography.

I have begun with my birth, my natural first birth as I have always referred to it. But it is my re-birth I think you my reader will find the more fascinating.


	2. Augural wraith

I was twenty-six when I was born for the second time

**Firstly thanks 2 my reviewers xXxBooshLoverxXx and chugirl 2526 as always thanku 4 ur wonderful reviews: D This rambling rubbish underneath is 4 u not sure how much of a compliment this is: D**

**Okay just 2 let u know this fic with ramble from first 2 second person quite a bit: )**

**I don't own this: D**

**The chapter is from the amazing **_**Our brother the Native**_**, which I also don't own: D**

She rested her head against the hard surface of the table, feeling the vibrations of the world swirling around her. With both eyes closed she ran her fingers over the rough wooden groves. It was sticky.

'I hate you when you're like this!' Her companions snarl filtered through the darkness. Generally she would play along but she was tired, tired suddenly of everything.

'Fucking snap out of it yeah, you just need to feed.' She wasn't hungry. She craved something else, something to fill her up inside to take away the emptiness. Anthrax the girl seated next to her would never understand such hunger, she was a blunt instrument. Passion drove her; the passion to feed, to fuck, to steal and to kill. Anthrax wasn't stupid, she was anything but out of the two of them in fact she was probably the more intelligent she could think on her feet, where Ebola had always required a running start. It was just that she was lazy. She never thought about anything too deeply or for too long.

'I do not need to,' Ebola closed her mouth her eyes suddenly snapping open revealing one milky lens and one dark ebony pupil. She smelt it, something she had only smelt once before and that had been on Anthrax. She smelt magic, real magic. It was distant and just residual, but it lit up the inside of her nose. It intrigued her.

'You, come here.' Anthrax's commanded the stranger, noticing the change in Ebola. Ebola couldn't fight the smile, which threatened to upturn the corners of her scarlet mouth. Even now after so many years, after so many fights they still both wanted to make the other happy.

The stranger obediently followed Anthrax's command. It was a boy, a young man with overly style glossy shoulder length jet black hair and large; unusually large piercing blue eyes. He was pretty despite the angular nature of his pale features. So pretty in fact that it would be easy to mistake him at first for a peculiar looking girl, easy for anyone other than Anthrax and Ebola. He was drunk slurring his words and sloshing a pink cocktail dangerously around in its glass. If he spilt that drink on Anthrax; Ebola knew that she would lunge across the table and snap his slender neck with one twist. But thankfully he didn't, he just mumbled on drunkenly hypnotising Ebola with his smell. She listened to the sound of his heart beating thundering against his ribs, she wondered if he knew there was a hole in that heart of his; the rhythm beating out of sink every now and then.

'Go and get us a drink and we'll think about it.' Anthrax smiled, her fangs catching the light. Dutifully he stumbled off in the direction of the bar.

'Do you want him? Or should I have him? Or do you want to share him?' Anthrax turned in her seat twisting against the worn leather making it squeal and twist beneath her; as she bombarded Ebola with a sudden flurry of questions. Ebola thought for a few moments.

'Mind you there ain't much to go around, if you want him just this once you can have him.'

'Just this once?' Ebola raised her eyebrow, wondering when the power had shifted in their dynamic.

'Touch him.' Ebola breathed as he made his way back to the table, completely oblivious to the fate they had been planning for him.

'What, why?' Anthrax complained bitterly.

'Just do it Mary, just touch him tell me what you see.'

'Don't call me that.' Anthrax warned the tone of her voice growing harsh and dark.

Despite her initial resistance when he came back to the table she reached out her hand lacing her fingers across his own trembling digits as she retrieved her drink from his grasp. It only took a few moments and when it was done it was as if nothing had happened at all, but it had happened Ebola had seen it.

The night dragged on for them at least Anthrax and Ebola sat there watching him get drunker and drunker longing to share the information, which they knew the other now possessed. Finally he left the table and they were alone again.

'Tell me what you saw?'

'No. You tell me what you smelt first.' Ebola wrinkled her nose dragging the moment out taking a sip from her drink.

'Very well, he smells like you.' She informed casually.

'Me!' Anthrax gasped dramatically.

'You. What did you see?'

Fidgeting on the spot she twisted under Ebola's penetrating gaze.

'He lives in a hovel with an idiot, some kind of primate and a, well you already know don't you.' She sulked pouting as she folded her arms tightly across her chest. Ebola grinned running her fingers under her the soft cool flesh of her companions chin, Anthrax pulled away.

'Dee, my dearest heart my,'

'Cut the mushy crap; that stopped working a century ago.' Anthrax sneered.

'So I guess this means we can't eat him then.'

'Not tonight no. We need him to invite us back to that little hovel of his first.'

Frustrated Anthrax drummed her short nails against the table, letting the repetitive thudding drill a hole in Ebola's brain. Ebola leaned in close pressing her body flush against the side of her companions form her breath hot against the hollow of her neck.

'But I promise once we've done a little 'investigating' we can eat them all him, the idiot, the primate and the Shaman.'


	3. Shoot em up bang bang

Ebola stewed while Anthrax filled through the television channels

**I'm sorry I haven't gotten back 2 my wonderful reviewers had loads of essays 2 write n a Halloween party 2 plan: D**

**But I will respond 2 nite : D But until then thanks 2 xXxBooshLoverxXx, chugril 2526 and SisiDraig 4 reviewing my rubbish.**

**I don't own this: )**

**Enjoy this is slow, but it will get quicker when I know what I'm doing: D**

**Again just 2 let u know I don't own this: D**

Ebola stewed while Anthrax flipped through the television channels.

'I was watching that.' She complained.

'_I was watching that,'_ Anthrax mimicked back making her voice sound a pitch higher and more whiney.

'Nobody watches the news its boring, same old fucking same old. War, famine, hoodies, ugly shitnuts.' Shitnuts; Ebola mouthed silently rolling her eyes, wondering what ever happened to Anthrax's grasp on the English language.

'Not everyone wants to be divorced from reality.' Ebola muttered loud enough for Anthrax to hear her words and the tone clearly. They stared at each other for a few moments, both sitting at opposite sides of the bath their porcelain limps tangled together beneath the steaming water. Their bathroom is plain and stark all white gleaming tiles from floor to ceiling. There's a high roll top bath and a vanity unit, which is cluttered with make-up and hair products. No mirror; no mirrors anywhere. It's something they both secretly miss the ability to have power of their own image, their reflection; it means they have to trust the other completely. Instead of a mirror there is a small plasma screen television set into the wall; from whatever angle they sit in the bath they can both always see it its democracy.

'Maybe you've got something there, Mac.' Anthrax was the first to speak, she's always the first to speak the silence between them has always made her feel nervous. Silence is dangerous.

'Here look I'll compromise,' The word compromise stuck in her throat; she feels like that's all she's ever done since she met Ebola compromised.

'…we'll watch _GM:TV _cus its got a bit of boring news for you and,'

'I think he's dead.' Ebola cut her off her sentence just hung there mixing with the condensation. Anthrax peered over the edge of the bath glancing down at the male form twisted and sprawled out across the bathroom floor her nimble fingers searching for a pulse, she felt the faint thud of a distant fading heart beat. Ebola rang the bell; it was a small silver bell the noise seemed to slice through everything. There was a rustle as the bathroom door creaked open.

'Madam?' Anthrax crinkled her nose at the sight of the girl who appeared. The girl in her opinion had always been non-descript medium height, short straight mousy hair, not pretty not ugly just plain. She's the sort of person you'd walk by in the street and never realise you'd walked past anyone at all. It's not that Anthrax dislikes the girl it's just well that she's always been there doing nothing or seeming to do nothing living off the scraps from Ebola's table. She's not jealous.

'Yes Lizette, we've finished with that now you can take it away.' Lizette has always been there from the very beginning, from long before Anthrax ever met Ebola all the servants have. Servants, is another thing that sticks in Anthrax's throat it goes against her working class sensibilities an eternity of servitude. Lizette dutifully dragged the body away being careful not to leave a trail of blood. Once she had gone Anthrax turned her face back from the wall licking the last residual traces of a strangers' life from her overdeveloped canines.

'_They retract you know.' _Was one of the first things Ebola had ever said to her after it had happened. Yet even now after so long it's a skill she still hasn't mastered, Ebola's teeth are flawless.

Ebola stretched lazily stifling a yawn with the back of her hand. Anthrax just sat there watching her before leaning across awkwardly planting a kiss on her open mouth. It took them both by surprise for a few moments; the surprise interrupted by Lizette who whipping a few stray traces of scarlet from the sides of her mouth appeared clutching a towel out waiting to receive Ebola's perfect frozen form. Anthrax wonders why after so many years Ebola just can't get out of a bath like anyone else, why there always has to be this performance. Showing her distaste the way she always showed her distaste she jumped out of the still boiling water first grabbing her own towel making a show of her own self-sufficiency such as it was.

She didn't wait for Ebola wrapping the damp towel around her waist she walked from the bathroom into the bedroom they share. The first thing that greets her is the sight of the two ornate coffins sitting side by side in the centre of the room, but looks can be deceptive there isn't really two coffins it's really just the one spliced together. There are a lot of myths surrounding what they are and a lot of truth. The check list follows no reflection true, coffins true, no direct contact with sunlight true, never drinking dead blood true. An aversion to religious artefacts and religion in general false; Lizette as long as Anthrax's had known her had always been a devout Catholic, Ebola also said her prayers ever morning before the lid is closed on them for another day. They've been to churches; Ebola loved midnight mass at Christmas. The walls have never bled and there was never any lightening bolt from the sky, this has always lead Anthrax to believe one of two things either there is no divine creator or if there is whatever it is doesn't have the slightest care of what they do.

The stake through the heart however unpleasant is also false. There is in fact no way to kill a Vampire; than can be baked in the sun until there bones turn to dust but they never die they just transcendent the physical plain becoming something else thinking matter. When in this non corporal shape than can jump from body to body becoming once again something close to what they had once been. There are only a few Vampires who have ever been known to do this; the rest just float about a bit.

She's followed into the room by Ebola who was being fussed over by Lizette her long blond hair being brush and plaited.

They got changed Anthrax slipping into her boxer shorts skinny t-shirt combination, while Ebola opted for her oversized black silk pyjamas.

Ebola climbed into her side of their coffin first she always slept on the right, Anthrax ran a brush through her own damp hair wondering whether she should do something new to her hair with each stroke. There's not much she hadn't done to it; its poor and overly abused. She'd been threatening to grow it long for; well forever since the 70's at least her hair had always been short.

And then she crawled onto her own side of the coffin letting herself melt into the warmth of the thin cotton sheet resting her head against the pillow behind her neck, listening to the sound of Ebola's daily devotion.

'Amen.' Ebola finished with a whisper.

'Good morning Lizette.'

'Good morning Madam, Miss Delia.' The lid was snapped firmly down on top of them casting everything into shadow suddenly.

'Hey Mac, what about this?' Anthrax elbowed Ebola in the darkness catching her attention demonstrating her new sleeping position folding her arms across her chest.

'You've done that one before, Bob.'


	4. She plays the drums I'm on tambourine

The smell of magic is indescribable

**I'm still busy doing my dissertation outline but here is a quick update, with a little cliffhangerness at the end: D**

**Thanks 2 SisiDraig, xXxBooshLoverxXx, chugirl 2526 and BeckyRocks X…**

**Also special thanks 2 BeckyRocks 4 all her advice on Vampires: D**

**My Victorian cockney is pretty bad considering I am studying 2 become a historian, my only excuse is it's not my period it's way 2 modern: D**

**I don't own this: )**

The smell of magic is indescribable. Once you have encountered its intoxicating aroma it's something you never forget or quite get over; it's like first love.

It was that smell that first drew Ebola to Anthrax it cut through reality like a knife, slicing everything down the middle.

It had been along time a very long time since Ebola had last visited the circus there was nothing there for her she'd always loathed the common garish trickery of such places. They all tasted the same those kinds of people however hard she tried she could never get that taste out of her mouth it would linger for days after the initial kill; it was always quite upsetting. The smell didn't help either so many people, so many animals all blending together; sweat and dung. But she'd been drawn into that place by the overpowering scent of promise. She'd paid her money and taken her place on the benches becoming one of the faceless mass.

She'd felt out of touch; she'd started to feel more and more out of touch like she was losing her grip on the world as she'd sat there her mind completely consumed by memories of how it had been when she'd last visited _Astley's _circus. Everything was different noisy there was so much machinery, with a shudder Ebola had remembered her last encounter with one of her would be victims she hadn't been able to understand a word he'd been saying she'd abandoned the whole unsuccessful venture. She religiously read the paper every morning before she was interned but recently she'd failed to understand a single thing printed between the crisp white pages, who were these people? Ebola had been afraid. There is nothing more fatal to a Vampire than becoming a relic; it dulls the senses and means that you can only prey on the very dregs of society.

And then she had seen her Anthrax had appeared in the centre of the ring dressed as the Harlequin; something that had been popular when Ebola had been young but had since fallen out of favour like everything else. The smell of magic had clung to Anthrax like perfume clung to most mortals. Anthrax spoke but Ebola wasn't listening she just watched silently as Anthrax was wrapped in chains and locked in a box. Ebola had seen this sort of act before, but there was something about the way Anthrax had performed it which had captured her interest. The way she'd suddenly appeared in the crowd a moment later; it had surprised Ebola she hadn't seen how it was done. Anthrax's next trick had been submergence in water again; Ebola had failed to discover how she had escaped. And then lastly Anthrax had appeared once again in the audience next to her this time gripping her by the shoulder and then suddenly they'd been outside standing amongst the brightly coloured circus caravans in the chill of the cold night air. No one could move that fast no mortal; no Vampire only one race had the ability to time shift, Shamans.

And then back again she was fast if Ebola had been a mortal she would never have known anything about being teleported outside but Anthrax had made the mistake of picking the wrong person in the crowd that night. It had been warm under the spotlight of the ring.

'_Miss Delia Plume!' _The ring master had bellowed over the sound of the riotous applause, Anthrax had bowed greedily soaking up the praise before she'd marched out of the ring. Ebola had followed her.

Ebola had never encountered a Shaman she'd heard about such creatures in legend, she knew that if a Vampire fed on the blood of a Shaman it would endow them with the ability to walk among the mortals in the light of day. Night and day she could have fed; she could have seen the sun again she would never have been afraid of the terrible dawn.

It wasn't hard to gain entry into Anthrax's white tented dressing room all it had taken was a farthing to the wardrobe mistress. There had been a hand written sign on the flap 'Non de plume' Ebola had been mildly amused.

She'd watched her for a few moments making sure she was out of the reflection of the mirror watching as Anthrax stripped away the layers of her thick make-up. Generally Ebola never played anything so coy but this was a Shaman a being of incredible power she would not risk anger her.

She coughed to let Anthrax know she'd been there.

'Wotcha?' Had been Anthrax's greeting as she glanced over her shoulder; she'd still had her thick East London brogue then.

'Excuse me, but am I in the presence of Miss Delia Plume?' She'd grinned and nodded.

'That's what it says on my marker out there; don't it?' Anthrax had at that time been somewhat of a cliché.

'Indeed, non de plume very droll.' Ebola desperately wanted to dislike her; but there had been something about her that went deeper than magic she was intrigued by her. Anthrax had kicked out one of the battered chairs next to her nodding for Ebola to take a seat. Ebola sat down.

'Make it quick.' Anthrax had informed as she slipped off her hat and long wig revealing the short cropped hair that lay beneath. Ebola paused fighting the urges that threatened to overwhelm her as she saw the vein raise and pulse on Anthrax's neck. She coughed again shifting awkwardly.

'I, I…I'm afraid I, I,'

'You want me,' Anthrax cut her off as she leaned in close, so close that Ebola could feel her warm breath on her face.

'Don't do many private showings I only work for paper mind you, leave your particulars with the gaffer.' Ebola had struggled for words her mouth flapping open and closed no speech escaping her lips.

'I'm worth it mind you you'll get plenty of bang. 'Ere you ever 'erd of the bullet catch?' Dumbly Ebola shook her head, Anthrax had rolled her eyes.

'Course you ain't lady like yourself.' Her eyes roamed over her for a few seconds as she decided what type of woman Ebola was. There was only one type of woman who roamed around the streets alone. She arched her eyebrow as she slipped her hand into the pocket of the faded satin dressing gown she had been wearing pulling out a small heavy black revolver.

'Ere get up, don't fret.' Grabbing Ebola she manoeuvred her willing form across the room positioning her just so placing the gun in her hands. She'd never held a gun before it had felt heavy and dead in her cold grasp.

'Shoot me.' Anthrax had ordered Ebola hadn't obeyed the gun had simply gone off in her hand the bullet exploding from the chamber.

And then nothing, Anthrax had casually sat back down at her dressing mirror. Ebola had been frozen in place staring at the back of head.

'Dee.' It had casually slipped from her lips as if she'd always been Dee; her Dee. She'd been worried about her; she hadn't wanted to hurt her to harm her in anyway. That's when she'd known she'd been in trouble.

The wardrobe mistress had returned ordering Ebola out, just as she'd been turning to leave Anthrax had caught her by her arm spiting something out into her palm she slipped the small metallic object into Ebola's hand.

'This belongs to you Miss.' She grinned.

When she was back outside Ebola uncurled her fingers seeing the bullet that was laying there shining back up at her sparkling away in the gloom.

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'Fucking zombie wankers!' Anthrax complained her voice rough and ragged, her eyes dark eyes shining. Ebola smiles at her adding her weight to the door pressing herself against it, they stare at each other with no sound to interrupt them but the mixing of their own harsh breathing. They don't have to breath they just do it because that's what they've always done; neither of them have reached that stage where they've forgotten what it was like to be mortal. Ebola cracks first giggling Anthrax soon joins her.

'There's no style to them, they lack…' Ebola's words die in her throat as she glances up for the first time seeing the glass ceiling above them.

'Shitnuts!' Anthrax's frowns her gaze quickly following.

There trapped like a wasp in a jar. They can't go outside Vampire or no Vampire a zombie can still rip you to shreds they'll still try to have a good nibble on you. And they can't stay where they are no indefinitely because sooner; well soon the sun will start coming up and they'll end up getting roasted.

'How many of them do you think are out there?' Anthrax asks her voice suddenly very soft and low.

'Too many.' Ebola replies.

'Yeah but they won't I mean they can't hurt us can they? I mean we're already dead we've got no body heat they won't, they can't?' Anthrax clings onto the faintest traces of hope.

'There zombies they'll try to eat anything when they run out of the live stuff they'll start eating each other.' Ebola predicted grimly glancing around the dark empty space searching for something; anything. For the first time in centuries she feels like crying. It's cowardly she knows after how many lives she has taken she has no right to complain about her own; but still she can't help it an eternity of floating about of the whim of the wind fills her with horror.

'Do you think there all dead?' Anthrax questions despondently falling to her knees slumping against the heavy door.

'Who?' Ebola frowns as she springs into action searching.

'All the people?' Ebola thinks about this for a few moments and then shakes her head.

'No.' Ebola believes that humans the human condition is some kind of infection; it doesn't how many of them kill each other how many of them are kill they always find a way to survive.

'Maybe we should just forget about it, I mean if there all dead then…then what are we going to live on? We can't eat zombie; we can't drink dead blood it doesn't work inside us. I don't want to starve; I've seen people what've been starved to death and they,'

'Sssush, ssush.' Ebola returns to Anthrax crouching down in front of her clasping the sides of her face in her cold hands planting a kiss on her nose, trying her best to smile.

'Noone is going to starve. Dee, Dee were going to get out of here I promise. You're going to feel very silly that you made so much fuss.'


	5. I will love you until my dying day

**Slow and only half a chapter I'm afraid: (**

**Probs wont be posting ne more for the next 2 weeks due 2 uni…lol…n I'm dj loads at the mo check out my myspace 4 playlists 4 the 14****th**** : D Plug mcpluggy: D**

**N e way I will get 2 u guys who reviewed the last chapter, promise: D**

**Till then thanks 2 BeckyRocks X, xXxBooshLoverxXx and chugirl 2526: D Thanks u guys 4 ur wonderful reviews: D**

**Ne way please enjoy, fingers crossed at least: D**

**I don't own this: D**

After the first time she met her she realised that she couldn't live without her.

Ebola visited the circus every night for the next couple of weeks; every night it was the same thing crushing disappointment. Anthrax was gone.

She made inquires frantic to find her but Anthrax had simply disappeared; something had happened that much had been obvious but none of the performers were willing to divulge any information.

Ebola was at a loss to know what to do; she didn't have a name or an address Anthrax had just been swallowed up.

She went away. It was cowardly but it was something Ebola had always done she ran away from her problems.

She went to Paris first but when that got too much for her she escaped again. Everywhere Anthrax seemed to follow her; the ghost of her clinging to every street every unknown face. She stopped eating she couldn't face going out; she just lay in her coffin crying into her pillow like some pathetic love-struck teenager. If Ebola had had a heart that worked that still beat she knew it would have burst. She hated life the colours of the world had grown fainter the noise louder; everything was garish and ugly. She wanted to lose herself.

Ebola only half mourned the loss of Anthrax, how much can your really pine over someone you've only met once and exchanged less that ten words with? The rest she'd known had come from seeing herself the way she must have been an unknown innocent victim. There was power in the unknown; she missed it.

She'd also been lonely not that she was alone she had Lizzette, Mrs Pettifer her housekeeper and all the original members of staff who had worked for her when she'd been a mortal and actively followed her into immortality. But it was a long time since she'd had an equal; she still remembered when it had been the three of them, she wondered if they were still together if they'd both carried on without her. It had always been a self enforced isolation she'd encountered others of her own kind she'd spent time with them but she'd always pulled back from making that final connection. They'd been mortals who'd intrigued her in the past as well; she'd always dealt with this in two ways to kill them quickly or to leave them; to walk past quickly and never look back.

She'd only been living half a life.

In Anthrax she had seen another way; the chance to have an equal; to have someone she could learn from and teach in equal measure.

Ebola during this time had learnt to control her hunger; she could go days, weeks without feeding it awarded her power she didn't feel like a desperate animal any longer.

And then Ebola had found herself back at the beginning, back in London the place that had always called to her heart. In two years the capital had changed becoming unrecognisable; she'd visited the street that she'd been born on the old house was gone swept away by progress; even the name of the street had changed.

She found Anthrax the same way she had discovered her the first time that smell that most unforgettable aroma. She'd been rushing along trying to escape the rain she'd lost her umbrella and she'd always disliked to hunt when wet, to much splashing about. She'd shot down a nearby alley rushing past a small grotty looking back street pub; as she'd passed she'd smelled it fainter but she knew that it could only have meant one thing that Anthrax was there. She avoided such places like the plague; they were generally filled with rough common men whose hands constantly seemed to want to rove all over her. She'd looked through the illuminated window listening to the laughter and life watching the movement letting the rain soak through her. Her eyes had darted searching; they're only been two women in the whole establishment a hag of a land lady and a slender rosy cheeked bar maid. It wasn't Anthrax Ebola had studied her features again and again in her head burning them into her memory. The bar maid had a much prettier face and long messy auburn curls; she was sitting on a young man's lap resting her head on his narrow shoulders. There was a small ragged crowd gathered around the pair; in front of the young man were three clear glasses and a ball. The ball shifted under the glasses and then simply disappeared, only it hadn't disappeared Ebola had watched as the young pale stranger had deposited the ball in his scruffy pocket. Everything shifted uncomfortably.

She brushed herself down and stepped inside the pub a hushed whisper fell over the establishment as she'd pushed the heavy door open, only one type of woman went into a pub alone and Ebola had looked the complete opposite of that type of woman. She'd looked like the fine grand lady she always affected.

She ignored everyone and stepped towards the table; the young man's eyes widened at the sight of her.

'Polly, get us a pint love.' He breathed softly planting a gentle kiss on the bar maid's flushed cheek. She rolled her eyes grinning as she slid from his lap.

'Not on the house, you'll have to pay for this 'un.' Polly had giggled in a thick West Country accent. London had been filled with accents and languages more then than even now it had seemed like the whole population of the world had made that sprawling metropolises its home at one time or another.

No money exchanged hands as the red head had happily bounced off in the direction of the bar.

'What do you want?' The young man had asked her wearily. Ebola's eyes had moved over her his hair had been short concealed under scruffy looking bowler hat; the dark inky blackness had been a juddering contrast to the paleness of his cheeks. He was slim and although he must have been at least twenty five he had the form of a boy not a man. His appearance had left Ebola wondering.

'Have we met before sir?' She already knew the answer to that question.

He grabbed her it had taken her by surprise; he forcefully pushed her down onto the bench in front of him. She rubbed her wrist; not that it had hurt it was just that there'd been something about the way he had touched her it had been along time since anyone had touched her like that she'd enjoyed the loss of control.

''Ere you go Bob.' Polly had returned depositing dutifully a full pint glass down in front of him. He hadn't noticed at first they'd both just been staring at each other.

'Who's your friend Bob?' He'd smiled up at the bar maid there'd been something in his eyes that had told Ebola he was in love with the young woman.

'This is Mrs Dobouchet, Pol.' He'd remembered her name Ebola had been beyond pleased; she'd smiled.

'Pleased to make your acquaintance, Ma'am.' Polly had nodded respectfully; she'd been trying hard to hide her concern and suspicion but she couldn't hide it from Ebola, she saw straight through her and out the other side.

'We're just concluding a little business Pol, shouldn't take long my dear.' He informed her as she'd slipped into the worn seat next to him; he'd wrapped his arm around her and they'd both been looking at Ebola.

It was overly theatrical Ebola had thought about leaving; but this is what she'd wanted what she'd searched for, for so long.

'See I told you putting that advertisement in the paper were a good idea.' Polly had informed him in a matter-of-fact tone of voice that grated against Ebola; it was over familiar.

'He's very good Ma'am you should have no problems with him. Why only last week there was a man what come in ere, he'd lost his watch and Bob see 'ere detected it like that,' Polly snapped her fingers. 'got sixpence for that he did; didn't you Bob? We'll he had sixpence mind you 'till he wasted it all on that silly hat.' She brushed her fingers across the rim of his hat giving it a mischievous push she knocked it at an angle.

The man just sat back letting the girl do all the talking Ebola could tell he enjoyed watching her speaking for him.

'So what do you want detected Miss? Did you have the advertisement on your person Miss?' Ebola shook her head.

'No matter I got the particulars ere.' Polly pulled out a tatter piece of paper from the front pocket of her faded apron. Ebola had studied it for a few moment amused.

_Mr Bob Skeleton- Private detective._

'Very well Mr Skeleton I am looking for someone…'

This was how Ebola found Anthrax again; as unconventionally as she had the first time. Anthrax had been living above that pub working as a detective calling herself Bob Skeleton and not only dressing but living like a man.


	6. There was a fire at the warehouse

**Long time no updates…lol…I've been super busy…lol…**

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They've only made love once.

They've only made love once, once without it being there that invisible barrier which hard as they try neither of them can ever break through. It's not just one of them it's both of them; they're both to blame. Anthrax because her eyes are always closed; and Ebola because she longs to one night see her eyes open. She knows it's not her, it's not her Anthrax is really making love to. It's the other one.

The other one, who's always hovering just out of sight; a constant hazy presence.

In life Anthrax may have been unfaithful, but in death she clings to her memory never faltering.

It's not that they don't love each other; they do they love each other deeply and more loyally than they have ever loved anyone else either of them. But they're not in love. Ebola thinks she could be almost in love with Anthrax. But she knows deep down Anthrax could never; will never fall in love with her. She's still desperately clinging to the hope that the deal that was made can someday be undone.

It's that boy; Obsidian Blackbird Raven McKnight it's ever since they met him something has been wrong with Anthrax. Only a day has past but something is wrong with Anthrax, Ebola can feel it.

They both lay there side by side, both knowing that the other one is still awake neither of them saying anything. Just still and quiet lost in their own private darkness.

She must have eventually fallen asleep, because when she woke up the space next to her, Anthrax's traditional space was empty. It's not unusual; Anthrax often wakes up before Ebola she's always suffered from nightmares. There are things she still wont tell Ebola; Ebola knows there terrible things.

But there's something different about the space next to her; the sheets aren't rumpled there's been no movement just silence and breathing. She slides open the lid of the coffin they share and sits up stretching out her pent up body, yawning. She rings for Lizette who dutifully enters the room and switches on the shower in the bathroom. Ebola slips out of her pyjamas letting the cool fabric collect around her feet. It's wordless, she remembers as she lets her hair out of the two long blond plaits falling vertically across her chest the best piece of advice anyone ever gave her, _a good servant is something hard…_Ebola glanced at Lizette and wonders if she's taken that principal a little too far; but it's all too late now.

After her shower she still can't shake the feeling that something is wrong, something is wrong with Anthrax. They use to finish each others sentences it was instinct from the moment they met they fitted together it was a cruel twist of fate that had divided to people so perfect for each other by so many centuries. Ebola might never have known Anthrax. They still know what the other one is thinking, well sometimes they do and then other time Ebola is shocked by how little she knows.

When she leaves the bedroom she suddenly bombarded by a wall of sound. Anthrax has a habit of wondering from room to room leaving every electrical appliance running. The _Wii_ is on buzzing away waiting patiently for player two; the stereo is screeching away, different stations different voices and genres. Ebola switches them off methodically one after the other following Anthrax's ginger bread trail of noise. It's too late for this; the neighbours complain enough as it is. The last thing Ebola wants is another one coming around knocking at the door; asking questions. She can't stand to be polite sometimes; sometimes she just wants to be free to be angry to be rude to be like Anthrax.

When she eventually finds her, Anthrax is sitting squashed up on the sofa hunched over her knitting the sound of her needles clicking away. She's been making the same scarf for months and every time Ebola sees it, it's in the same state as she last left it.

'Shit!' Anthrax complains as she drops yet another stitch.

'Here, give it to me.' The older woman seat next to her on the sofa smiles warmly. They're watching _Eastenders_.

Anthrax surrenders the knitting to the older woman; watching as she corrects her mistake with one simple flick of her wrist.

'How the fuck did you do that?' Anthrax exclaims the wonderment clearly written across her features.

Ebola hovers in the door way studying them. Anthrax looks tentative and questioning as she follows the movements of the older woman's fingers with her probing eyes.

'Oh, there's naught to it Miss Delia.' The older woman informs genially. She's rather a large woman, fat most would say; with a mass of grey hair secured tightly to the top of her head her skin is puckered and wrinkled by time but there's intelligence in her gaze and warmth in her demeanour. She treats Anthrax like a Motherless child, something which Ebola notes she usually dislikes and bucks against because Anthrax is a Motherless child she's never felt parental warmth. And then sometimes like right then Anthrax can't fight it, she can't fight the affection and she lets it wash over her she reverts back to being a child playing the part to a childless Mother. But then Ebola remembers that Anthrax is still only young; not conventionally young she's well over one hundred and twenty years old although she's always trying to round it down; but she is young compared to Ebola.

'You've just got to have a bit of patience, dear.'

Anthrax's snorts and folds her arms tightly across her chest, abandoning the knitting; the lesson ending before it's really begun. It's the one thing she can't bring herself to manage.

'You're not wearing that.' Anthrax's informs her not bothering to even look up from the television screen; she doesn't have to she knows that Ebola will have forgotten because Ebola can be forgetful.

'What?'

'We're meant to be Goths, Vince thinks were a pair of deluded Goth girls.' _Vince? _Ebola raises her eyebrow she's never heard Anthrax use one of their names before; it suddenly seems more personal she liked it better when she thought his name was Obsidian Blackbird Raven McKnight; Vince just makes him sound alive more…real.

'Come here.' She jumps off the sofa grabbing Ebola by her hand dragging her in the direction of the bedroom they share. It's been a long time since Anthrax has dragged her off to their bedroom; she's missed it.

Ebola stands there pliable and motionless; the perfect living doll.

'This is too creamy.' Anthrax muses her fingers running over the fabric of Ebola's dress from the front to the back finding the zip with her wandering hands. She slides the metal down teasingly; she still has the power over Ebola, the power to make her shiver. Anthrax smiles it crosses her face before disappearing quickly as she pulls the dress off over Ebola's head. The dress just lies between them discarded crumpled on the floor.

Anthrax's turns her back on her sliding open the wardrobe door, like everything else they have a side each. Separate; side by side.

'Some of these are so old Mac, you should think about giving them to a museum or a charity shop.' Anthrax's giggles softly, teasing. The strange thing is she's actually thought about doing that; she's thought about it she can't stand the thought of all her old dresses rotting away in the attic but she can't stand the thought of them ever belonging to someone else people looking at her things touching them.

Anthrax studies the contents of her wardrobe meticulously studying and pulling out items holding them against Ebola's slender form.

'Not the blue, the black looks better.' Ebola comments, Anthrax's nods in agreement as she places the items on the top of their now closed coffins. And then she just stands there looking at Ebola, Ebola just standing there in her underwear staring right back. Anthrax reaches out tracing a line from Ebola's chin with her index finger, all the way down strong and continuous from the cool soft flesh of her pulsating flesh, across the fabric of her bra down over her thin stomach coming to a redundant rest at the top of her knickers.

'You better take 'em off Mac, they're way too frilly.' She grinned snapping the elastic.

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Winter was her favourite time. She presses her head against the leather of the seat behind her watching as the world passes her by. The car window is open and she lets the cool night breeze caress the contours of her face. She loves the City at night she always has, she likes to watch the lights the lights of a million different lives flashing off and on. At night the world opens up; anything can happen the world bristles with opportunity. She's only ever really seen the night, her memories all seem to revolve around darkness. All her memories except for three, the only memory she can ever really fix on from her childhood is sitting on the floor in the kitchen watching the water drip down from the newly dyed stockings hanging over the open fire. Splash, splash, splash against the uneven flag stones. Then there is the crunch of leaves under her feet a carpet of anaemic yellows, flaming reds and burnt oranges resting under a leaden sky the grey clouds slowly rolling in. And then there is the last time she ever watched the sun rise; for twenty six years she had ignored it only in those last moments did she realise how beautiful it was did she wish she'd enjoyed it more. She savoured those memories, but it was the darkness that had always called to her.

'This is it Miss Amy.' The sound of her driver's familiar voice crackles over the intercom.

'Mac, we're here.' Anthrax's jabs her in the ribs.

Their driver is already out of the car, he opens her door first Anthrax is capable of getting out of the limo without anyone assistance.

'You're looking very smart tonight, George.' Ebola smiles, straightening the tie of the man standing in front of her, her hand moving over the creases. George has always been Ebola's driver; in the old days when they were both mortals he use to drive her carriage and now he drives her limo. Anthrax asked him once why he didn't just leave them, wasn't he board of driving them everywhere and he simply replied that he'd _always rather liked driving_.

'The internet is a wonderful thing Miss Amy; there are dozens of people just waiting for a chap like me.' Anthrax rests her chin in the hollow between Ebola's neck and shoulder.

'Yeah well, don't getting any blood on the leather.' She chides her arms wrapping around Ebola's waist giving her a tight squeeze.

'I'll try not to Miss Delia.' George chuckles back.

'Will you be needing me later, Miss?'

'Na, were gonna walk home.' Anthrax informs grabbing Ebola's hand dragging her in the direction of the Dalston junk shop.

'Goodnight George.' Ebola waves back.

'Goodnight Miss Amy, Miss Delia.'

The atmosphere changes suddenly again; Anthrax is moody and silent dragging her heels as they cross the road. She won't hold Ebola's hand and her eyes never quite graduate past her chin, she won't look at her.

Ebola takes a large lungful of air sniffing; but this time its hard the smell of magic is so over powering that it makes her feel dizzy she can't locate the Shaman he could be in there and he might not be, but she can smell the boy and someone else. And then Anthrax grabbed her pinning her violently up against the hard metal shutters of the shop, it dug against her spine and then Anthrax bit her. Ebola's eyes widen and she finds herself transfixed by the glittering stars spread like a blanket above them. Anthrax has never bitten her before not like this not deep enough to draw her blood; her sharp dagger her canines penetrate her soft skin. It hurts the pain is like to hypodermic needles stabbing into her skin; it's a pain she's forgotten it must be like the amnesia that follows childbirth she concludes. Then that's something she's never known about children; there's something wrong with her or there was something wrong with her insides. It doesn't matter anymore.

And then Anthrax lets her go and she feels like she's going to fall over, the pressure is gone and she doesn't know how to stand up anymore. Anthrax smiles at her but it's one of those forced smiles that never reaches her eyes.

'What was that for?' Ebola questions her companion, ringing the doorbell. Anthrax just shrugs she opens her mouth to speak but before she gets the opportunity she hears the sound of thundering; someone thundering down the stairs and then the front door opens and it's him the boy smiling at them beckoning them inside.


	7. Vince Noir is magic

**I'm totally not happy with this chapter: D**

**I hope it's okay, it would be great 2 know what u guys think: D**

**I think this story is going 2 be really, really long cus I only have the slightest of ideas about where it's going and what I'm doing…plus I really like Ebola and Anthrax: D**

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Ebola felt like an idiot.

Anthrax was acting like an idiot.

She was acting strange, even stranger than she usually did.

'Anthrax and Ebola, right?' The boy questioned pointing at the wrong one. She opened her mouth to correct him but before she could Anthrax had done it.

'Anthrax.' She motioned pressing her hand against her chest.

'Ebola.' She grudgingly jabbed her thumb in Ebola's direction, it was off hand and out of order.

'Genius.' The boy giggled excitedly letting his mask slip; he recovered himself quickly Ebola had the feeling he did that a lot played pretend.

'You wanna follow me; my assistant is just arranging stuff.' Anthrax blocked her way stepping forward following him up the narrow stairs first; she couldn't hide her displeasure letting out an irritated little snort. She can't stand this; suddenly she's forgotten the goal why they're in that tiny dump in the first place, she wants to leave.

But then they reach the top of the stairs and the smell over powers her once again. That's her little trick they all have something the dark gift is different with everyone. With her it's her heightened sense of smell; with Anthrax it's the ability to reach into someone's mind, all she has to do is touch you and she can read every thought you've ever had…ever. It seems a little unfair.

It takes her a few moments but she manages to cut through the scent; she can smell the ape, she can smell the Satsuma skins rotting away in the kitchen bin and she can smell the boy. He smells synthetic, too much hairspray and product. But there's something underneath that something sweet; he eats sweets she can tell he's teeth are a little yellow and he's juddery hopped up on too much sugar dancing about in front of them like a moron. Anthrax is smiling at him and it's really it's one of Anthrax's true beautiful smiles; he's flirting with her it makes Ebola feels sick, whatever happens she's going to bite that boy she's going to hurt him and drain him dry; she's going to make Anthrax watch her do it. That will be her punishment; Ebola decided silently. But what if it's her punishment? What if Anthrax is finally sick of her? What if she wants a third? What if she wants her own Anthrax? What is she makes him one of them? Ebola couldn't stand that; she can't stand the thought of anyone replacing her she's been replaced before it was something she felt; she thought she'd never recover from. And then she'd met Anthrax and her life had started again. She can't go back to that; she won't let that boy take her place.

The room reads like some child's attempt at Halloween; she's never been interested in the occult but the pentagram and candles in her opinion are over the top. Anthrax sits down first and then him and Ebola finds herself just standing there like a spare part. He grins at her.

'Sit down, sit down.' He motions leaning forward over the pentagram patting the space enthusiastically next to Anthrax. Anthrax glances at her the nod tells her to sit down, but they never make eye contact.

He talks to both of them but he really only responds to Anthrax, they click Ebola just sits there looking vacant her neck bleeding away. Anthrax is interested in him she touches him; she smiles at him she laughs Ebola doesn't know much about Goths she only pretends but from all the Goths she observed and fed on they never laugh or smile they're cheerless souls but that's the appeal.

There's something strange about the way she looks at the boy Ebola notes this silently; she looks at him as if he was a child he shows off his ridiculous watch to Anthrax. She liked it she told him she asked him where he'd got it; but Ebola could tell she was just humouring him.

'So, are you really a sorcerer then?' She questioned him, wanting to show her displeasure her disappointment. But Anthrax didn't notice.

'Yeah.' He answered back enthusiastically he's lying she can tell it's not just that he's a terrible liar because he is, it's also the rate of his breathing and the fact that his heart with it's hole in it beats away like a drum pounding out of rhythm in her head.

'When are we going to do some sorcering?'

'Right now. I'll just call up my assistant.' He rang a bell it was small and silver, it reminded Ebola of the bell she uses to summon Lizzette. She wants to go home. And then the 'idiot' appears, his clothes are too tight. He smells like the boy; his scent is all over him claiming him. The boy's heart thunders away in his chest; and Ebola suddenly realises something, he loves that idiot. And the matching quickening pace of the Idiot's heartbeat told Ebola that he's in love with the boy. And then she suddenly feels sorry for them; because neither of them know about the others feelings. But if she knows this then so much Anthrax; because when she touched him she would have felt it but she's not responding she's just playing along. Every now and then Ebola catches something about 'swans' and 'shitting', but she's not really listening, not really because she suddenly realizes who the boy is; it hits her like a ton of bricks and she finds herself staring at him. But it can't be it's been over a century it can't be him, he must have been long dead but no there he is sitting in front of them trying to dazzle their knickers off with cheap magic tricks.

He's her son…

Polly TooGood to be TrueGood.

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'_How long does she have?' Ebola questioned, glancing over the Doctor's shoulder at the woman lying in the bed behind them. She can tell from the expression of his face that the prognoses is for the worst; that she's going to loose her._

'_An hour at the most; she's fading fast.'_

'_And you're sure there's nothing more, nothing more you can do for her?' He shakes his head snapping his bag shut; he's so clinical._

'_Just make her comfortable.' That's it she's facing it now the thing she's been dreading that question, can she do it? She still doesn't know. She glances at the bed watching the woman lying on it and the girl perched on the edge; it's all tears and meaningful stares she feels outside the action outside of that life. She doesn't belong Ebola knows that; but she can't leave she can't leave Anthrax not like that._

'_Ssush, ssush, it don't hurt so much anymore.' Anthrax admits bravely lifting up her hand resting it against the girl's freckled cheek, a cheek that should rightfully be Ebola's. Anthrax had always been out of her reach and now, now she was moving even further away; being taken to somewhere Ebola knew she could never find her never follow._

_Ebola was frozen in place unable to take her eyes from Anthrax's face. She was so pale the skin around her nose and mouth was tinted blue as the oxygen was slowly choked out of her. She couldn't breathe her chest rattled as she gasped for air. That was how Fanny had died; Ebola remembered what it had been like to clutch her sister's head in her lap as she slowly suffocated to death. It was unbearable then; but it didn't have to be now it didn't have to be like this._

_The baby cried and the girl, Polly had been torn between Motherhood and Anthrax._

'_I'll stay with her.' Ebola had reassured her._

'_It's alrigh', it's alrigh,' don't take on so.' Anthrax had smiled weakly dabbing at the girl's tears sweeping them away with her rough fingers._

'_Oh Bob.'_

'_The baby needs ya Pol, I ain't going anywhere not yet anyway.' She grinned grimly. She was brave and magnificent even then in her final moments when her light was almost extinguished; it only made Ebola want her more._

_The baby cried again and this time Polly didn't refuse him planting a quick kiss on Anthrax's lips she left the small rundown room sobbing._

_And then finally they were alone._

_Ebola found herself just staring down at Anthrax; she looked perfect her skin so pale and her short hair so dark._

'_I can't die like this.' Anthrax whispered weakly._

'_I can't…I can't leave her…what's going to happen to her if I die?' Ebola feels the void. She knelt down next to the bed smiling at Anthrax._

'_What if I told you that you didn't have to die; that you never had to die.' _

_It was inevitable Ebola supposed as she whipped away the last traces of Anthrax's blood from her fangs, that it would end like that. The temptation had been too great. She fastened the buttons on her shirt. She remembered her promise and called Polly back in and this time when she watched them; Ebola didn't feel left out. It didn't take long for Anthrax to die after that; it was much faster than it had been for Ebola but then Anthrax had been dying already Ebola's bite had just finished her off. _

_But it was only a mortal death…_

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_Anthrax's funeral cost £5 in total. Ebola felt cheap, she gave the rest of the money to Polly and her brat. Of course it wasn't really a cheap funeral if Ebola hadn't been paying Anthrax probably would have been unceremoniously dumped in some unmarked pauper's grave. _

_No one attended the funeral it was just Ebola, Polly and the brat. It wasn't surprisingly really Anthrax didn't have any family; she'd spent most of her short life travelling around London, so her friends what friends she had would have been scattered about here and there. Most of them would never know she'd ever even died. _

_It had been rather pathetic everything Anthrax had ever owned, touched or used had fitted in a single suitcase it didn't amount to much of a life; but to Ebola and the girl who had been sitting next to her in that dank little back water church it had meant everything. She gave the case to the girl; how could she not?_

_Ebola had arranged for the funeral to take place at eight o'clock in the evening; only then had she realised how out of touch with the world she was when the girl and the Vicar had looked at her as if she'd been insane. When she'd been alive it was fashionable and popular to get buried at night; she'd been buried at night she'd just assumed people still did things like that. That had cemented her decision; she'd done the right thing she'd needed Anthrax. Anthrax opened a door to a world she no longer understood; she may have worn the clothes but she was no longer one of them._

_She had sat on one of the grave stones while George had made short work of digging Anthrax out of the ground. She couldn't remember what it was like being down there in her coffin; when she'd died she'd been so drunk and off her tits on laudanum that she hadn't been with it for ages she'd felt like a rag doll._

_Ebola had been there standing over the open grave mouth when the lid of Anthrax's coffin had opened and she'd emerged coughing and spluttering and looking pissed off._

'_That wasn't funny, you know.' The first thing she did was complain; in response Ebola had rolled her eyes. _

'_Leaving me in that fucking hole, it's been hours!' Ebola had gazed at her; Anthrax was perfect her hair was shiner, her skin even paler, her eyes brighter being dead was a good look for her._

'_What the fuck is this?' Anthrax had questioned as she frowned down at the wooden cross that marked her resting place. _

'_I ain't that fucking old! I'm only twenty-seven! And who said you could call me that?' Ebola had giggled at Anthrax's impotent indignation._


	8. The Promise pt1

**Dedicated to my wonderful readers SisiDraig, chugirl 2526 and BeckyRocks-x…**

**Soz it's taken me so long 2 update this is part one of a two part chapter but it was too long to post lol…all in the one so I've divided it up.**

**Yes the chapter The Promise is based on the Girls Aloud song I lurv it it's so cheesy: D**

**I have spell checked this and it's probs well dullsville but I hope anyone who reads it enjoys it: D**

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**Enjoy: D**

_When my sister died I just seemed to stop. I felt as if our souls had departed at the same time with her last struggling breath, but I was lost trapped between worlds between life and death. I lay on the floor and stared up at the ceiling which hung over me I blinked into the whiteness tracing the invisible cracks in the plaster, losing myself over and over again. On the third day I stopped crying I have never cried since, all the tears I would ever cry seemed to float out of me. I wanted to die I longed to turn my face away from the wall, but I could never find the strength to do it, never take that final step into oblivion. _

_I remember he funeral only as if it had been a dream, I remember the looks on the faces of those gathered around her grave they'd looked at me as if they'd all know what I'd been thinking as if they'd known that in less than a year I'd be lying right next to her._

_When it was over finally over the end hit me hard, that funeral was the last thing that I would ever do for her the last part of her that would ever be real, that I would ever be connect to everything had become memory the past._

_He had been there he'd stepped out from behind one of the greying craved marble monuments to the dead, he'd smiled at me._

'_Amy.'_

_I had recognized him at first through my numbness but then I finally had._

'_Amy it's me, it's Frank.'_

'_Frank.' I whispered back my voice thick in my throat._

'_I was sure you wouldn't remember me.'_

'_But I do, I do remember you.' I did I think._

'_I came on behalf of Mary and John they're very sorry. Mary asked me to give you this.' Mary was another one of my sisters she'd been perched somewhere between the ages of Harriette and myself, I think she was older than me but then again I may have been older than her, it was hard to know when there was always so many of us. Unlike me, unlike Fanny and unlike Harriette Mary got married; she lived securely in a house with her husband and her children working away in the shop which they owned. Being married meant that none of use saw Mary; it meant that when we passed her in the street both sides were required to keep walking. _

_What did he give me? He gaze me a faded piece of salmon pink ribbon. It had been Fanny's favourite colour and she had often worn such ribbons in her long golden curls._

'_How is Mary and your Brother, how is John?'_

'_Exceedingly well I fancy, Mary was brought to bed with another boy they named him for your Father.'_

'_Noel, as if there weren't enough Noels floating about in the family.'_

_Our conversation seemed to flow so perfectly that at the time I wasn't sure which words belong to either of us, who was really talking. It was so easy being with him I had known him since I was a child; I've never found that easy connection with another person._

'_Ah yes indeed you are right, but this is a Fielding, not a Dobouchet.'_

_I lied. I lied when I said I have never been married because in a way I have been married. After our initial meeting it wasn't long until, how would Anthrax put it…oh yes it wasn't long until we were fucking. It wasn't love not at first; it was more like two people who meet at a school reunion, it was something that passed the time and made us both feel better about the fact that what we'd hoped and dreamed for our lives wasn't what we had. _

_Like my family Frank had never been rich, the Fielding's had hovered on the edges of poverty. Frank however did have some money, money which he'd made out in India money which he would never tell me how he'd come by. I knew or I suspected that like me he might have been being kept by someone. I never asked him about it, it was just a suspicion that festered away inside of me. It didn't matter at the time I lived with him I spent his money, and in every way I was Mrs Fielding except for the fact that we never actually got so far as to ever acknowledge or cement our relationship in the eyes of the law or God._

_I didn't need it. I've changed since then I now need assurances I can't stand to think…But then I was different I was more realistic, I openly acknowledged the shifting nature of human relations, I knew that nothing would last forever._

_Our relationship was different, different to any of the others it was passionate and unrestrained I soaked up every moment I had with him because I felt like I could lose him at any moment. Our happiness didn't last long however much money Frank had I always found away to spend it so that there was never enough at the end of the month for the basics like food and rent. It didn't help the fact that we were chronic gamblers, alcoholics and drug addicts. _

_My career as a Courtesan ended with the death of my favourite sister I left all the intrigues to Harriette and Sophia, and it wasn't long until Sophia had managed to snare herself a rich Lord who she managed to convince to marry her. I felt sorry for Harriette left all alone ageing by the day, it can be a terrible thing to be young and beautiful._

_Anyway, Frank and I were happy for what feels like now the briefest of moments but felt like then the longest of lifetimes._

_It ended when I knew she had returned to claim him from me._

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'I'm sorry, I didn't I didn't know.' The girl next to her jabbered, Anthrax frowned staring at herself in the cracked mirror in front of her. She blinked, what had just happened? Everything felt upside down she felt inside out. Who was that, who had that woman been she'd just entered her life without a by or leave, and then she'd just left. She'd left Anthrax feeling breathless; the only person who had ever done that was standing next to her.

'I'm sorry, I'm so sorry I should have stopped her but I didn't see her, Mary I'm sorry.' The world suddenly flooded back in and she heard the younger woman's voice.

'Sussh, sussh it don't matter.' She soothed, her fingers running over the pots and brushes on the table in front of her collecting them up closing the caps and lids she was deciding.

'But Mary what if she knows about us? What if she knows…what if he sent her?' It was as if the girl was reading her mind, there had been something suspiciously different about that woman, for a start she hadn't had a reflection or a shadow maybe he had sent her, but something told Anthrax that the strange woman had come from another source.

And then she decided and everything seemed to feel lighter, she smiled and it felt real. She slipped out of the hard backed chair moving towards the younger woman wrapping her slender arm tightly around her impossibly tiny waist, holding her just holding her the rhythm of their breathing matching their chests rising and falling.

'I like your hair this colour.' She grinned letting the warmth of her words brush against the other woman's face as she played absentmindedly with a tendril of black hair.

'Mary.'

'It matches mine, see.' Anthrax whispered leading her around gently in her arms so that the girl's back was flush against her stomach; she let her hands rest around her waist as her head found the crook of the girl's soft warm neck.

'What a pretty pair we make.' Anthrax mused, knowing the power that mirrors had always had to distract the companion. It worked for the briefest of moments, it had felt as if it was only the two of them but it didn't last long the tent flap behind them opened and Anthrax felt her heart stop and her eyes bulge.

'Well, well, well ain't you a hard one to find McKinley.' The girl tensed in her arms as they both stared transfixed at the figure in the mirror behind them; he had a shadow and a reflection.

Anthrax blinked and turned but before she had the chance to really move she felt something heavy smash her in the face, everything suddenly filtered out into darkness.

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_The moment I closed the front door behind me I knew that something was wrong, Lizette had buzzed about behind me collecting my coat and muff struggling with the words that threatened to trip off the tip of her tongue._

'_Lizette, there's tea on the stove.' Mrs Pettifer mused, __had been waiting for me in the hall the stare, the same stare she sometimes gives me now which means she knows everything about everything I trust her._

'_Madam,' The older woman caught my hand once Lizette was safely out of the way._

'_Mr Fielding is upstairs…' I didn't wait to hear the end of her sentence I hitched up the corner of my dress dashing up the stairs letting my bonnet slip from my head as I ran. At that point I hadn't seen Frank in weeks I'd been desperate and elated at the idea that he might have come back to me, what greeted me however when I flung open the door of my bedroom was a sight of utter devastation. Everything I owned seemed to be thrown around the room my dresses, my letters, my cosmetics everything had been turned upside down. He lay on my bed sprawled out over the twisted blankets still wearing his muddy boots a bottle of wine resting limply in his hand, his face was grey not white but grey he looked as if he was dead, but now I know he was only dying._

'_The light Amy the bloody light it hurts my eyes, shut the damn door.' He croaked weakly. I did what I was told and we were suddenly plunged into darkness, I made my way through the devastation I should have been angry if it had happened now I would have been angry, but at the time all I could feel was fear terrible fear the fear of losing the only other person I had ever loved._

'_I'm tired, I'm so tired Amy.' His voice escaped his body in a weak rasp. I lay in darkness on the bed next to him my head resting against his chest listening to the thud of his still beating heart; he was hot on fire I could feel the heat emanating through his clothes._

'_You have a fever, you're burning up you should see a Doctor I'll send for a Doctor.'_

'_No, I don't want a damn Doctor!' He cried there was something a tone in his voice that I had never heard before for the first time I was afraid of him of what he might do._

'_I just want to rest here with you, and this.' He chuckled lifting up the bottle limply in his hand._

_His whole body started to shake and I was gripped by a sudden terror, and then it hit me like a ton of bricks that he was crying really crying no man have ever cried in front of me before._

'_I'm sorry, I'm so sorry Amy I'm so sorry…I never knew I promised her before…I'm sorry.' He sobbed clutching at me desperately, his river of tears coating the top of my head._

'_She saw you, she saw you! Oh Amy I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry but she saw you.' His words were strange and cryptic to me then had I known what I know now, well I'm still not sure what I would have done I never will._


	9. I'm happy, hope you're happy too

**Thanks 2 SisiDraig 4 my wonderful but loney (hint, hint) review…nah I'm only joking not so fussed if u review or not as long as u enjoy reading it it's all a bonus: D**

**Whoop, whoop happy Hanukkah 4 Monday, which I'm well excited about fingers crossed 4 Russell Brand tickets: D**

**And 4 all those non Jews lol…: D Happy Xmas which I'm also dead excited about woooo**

**Enjoy: D**

Anthrax's ears were ringing, there was darkness and light and pain. The pain flooded her it was a familiar pain, she remembered all the times she'd been hit and smashed about before it still hurt through.

She remembered how she had first seen her, how it had all begun. The floor was hard and her ears were ringing she felt movement; it was a kick or a shove. She'd been an angel and then there had been skates and skating Anthrax had never been on the ice before she'd seen people doing it but she had never done it, it had been slippery but she hadn't been afraid not with her hand in her own she could never feel afraid when she was there.

'Mary!' Anthrax heard her voice she was screaming her name, that horrible terrible name she had always hated. It was strange not to have a name a real name she wasn't really Mary McKinley or Delia Plume she wasn't really anything noone had ever given her a name, she was nothing.

'No, no leave her alone, please!' Anthrax was dragged back into reality with the painful tearing at her scalp, her eyes fluttered open struggling to focus his angular green parlour hovered over her his breath hot on her face stinking of rotten teeth and fish, he made her wretch.

'Dear, oh Dear McKinley,' He mused harshly under his breath, her gaze was still hazy.

'…you've been a bad girl.' More and more of her surrounding began to sink in, the haze lifting she could see the edge of the girl's dress from the corner of her eye, she could see feet heavy black boots.

'Please, please!'

'Shut that bitch up!' The Hitcher bellowed his grip tightening on her hair making her wince in pain. She watched as his head suddenly shot up.

'Don't.' He warned with something suddenly approaching softness in his voice.

'Just take 'er outside, get the bitch out of my sight!' There was rustling and the muffled sound of the girl's screams, Anthrax knew she was struggling.

'Don't lay a hand on her head, not one strand of hair, or I'll cut ya.' His warning suddenly sounded hollow as if he only half heartedly meant anything.

And then he suddenly let Anthrax go with a shove, getting back up onto his feet he dragged out the chair she'd last been sitting on pulling it out so he was once again in front of her.

'Me old Cockney pins.' The Hitcher breathed with a sigh as he stretched himself out in the hair resting his hands behind his head.

'You know McKinley, if you was any kind of woman I'd be raping you right now.'

'Lucky for me then.' Anthrax grimaced back, tucking her knees up under her chin as she stared at him.

The Hitcher ignored her pulling an apple from the pocket of his jacket, she jumped back suddenly when she saw the flick knife he chuckled in response enjoying the sight of her fear.

'What's all this been about McKinley?' He questioned smiling at her as he dug the knife deep into the apple letting the fruit hang on the edge of the blade for a few moments the clear juice coating the blade, before he started to slice away the thick red skin.

'I treated you good didn't I? You 'ad everything you wanted, didn't 'cha? I couldn't 'ave done more for ya. It's not the stealing I mind so much as, what you stole.' He continued to slice away at the apple the skin coming away in one complete tight coil. Anthrax suddenly jumped to her feet finding the necklace on the dressing table mirror she held it out for him waving it under his nose. The Hitcher looked at the necklace and then glanced up at her, soaking up the sight of the pair together.

'You trying to buy your life, McKinley?'

'Never!' She spat proudly, defiantly.

The Hitcher studied her face silently for a few moments, before chuckling to himself as he watched her shoulders twitch with fear.

'You stand firm, girl.' He sniggered.

'Don't…don't laugh at me!' Anthrax warned, choking done the tears that threatened to spill from her watery gaze and roll down her cheeks.

'I always liked you McKinley, you could sing for horse shit but I always liked you girl.' He informed dragging the moment out for as long as possible. She'd seen him do this, she'd seen him torture people with his words playing on their fears, she wouldn't let him torture her.

'Just do it! You've come 'ere to kill me so just kill me, I ain't afraid of you and I ain't gonna play no games!' In response to her words he tossed the apple away whipping the blade of his flick knife clean on his jacket pocket.

'Do you know what I'm gonna do to you McKinley?' He ignored her snatching the locket out of her palm with a quick twist of his wrist. She swallowed hard.

'I'm gonna skin ya alive, pop your eyes out like grapes and then stamp on em. Well, that was what I was gonna do.' He let the sentence hang between them.

'That was what I was gonna do, but then I though well I done that so many times before, I've got something much better planned for you.'

Anthrax tensed the fear threatening to overwhelm her, she felt sick sicker than she had ever felt in her life.

The Hitcher moved forward and the breath caught her in chest, but before he had the chance to move or to act she was there the girl, running through the tent flap throwing herself between the pair.

'Don't.' He warned the girl, turning his face away unable to look at her.

'Please, please.' She begged, Anthrax blinked watching the pair the girl kneeling down in front of him.

'Stop it.'

'Please don't do this, please don't hurt her I promise…I promise I'll do anything, anything!' The girl sobbed hysterically, it dawned on Anthrax that she should have possibly been more involved in the act of begging for her own life but she couldn't she wouldn't, and she wasn't prepared to watch the girl beg for her.

'You'll do anything I ask, will ya?' The Hitcher questioned, Anthrax knew what was coming and she couldn't let it happen. She dropped to her knees grabbing the girl's face forcing her to look at her through her tears.

'No you ain't gonna do that, not for me.' Anthrax warned, realising that she was crying. The girl sobbed shaking her head in defiance her tears stopping her from speaking.

'Listen to me, listen to me don't look at him.'

'What would you do for me Elise? What would you do to save her life?' Like the mirror before Anthrax couldn't tare the girl's gaze away from the Hitcher's green features.

'Anything.' The girl repeated eagerly.

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'_What do you mean she has seen me? When has she seen me, we've never been together since she arrived.' I questioned him, even from far away there had been something about that distant unknown woman which had chilled me._

'_No you have never seen me but I, I saw you I watched you and…she watched me.'_

'_Who is this woman, how comes she to have so much power of you?' His wife I expected him to tell me she was his wife, a wife I knew how to deal with._

'_She's a woman, who I met while I was out in India,'_

'_Is she your wife?' He chuckled and took a long gulp from the bottle in his hands, he was beyond drunk at this point._

'_No not my wife. She was just a woman, a woman who was always there she's rich you see she was at every party. And me with my old trouble, she leant me money all she asked in return was that I stayed and talked to her a little whenever I saw her. I took her money and I made the promise, the first promise. But I lost it all I had nothing and she offered me more, she offered me a house in Mumbai if I promised to stay with her at night…only sometimes and I never lay with her I never touched her she wouldn't let me.' I sat in silence listening to him as he rambled on half crying half laughing, losing his mind._

'_But it's never enough you know it isn't Amy, it's never enough money…I never seem to win I have the most accursed luck.' He clung to me and in the darkness and the heat I felt as if I was being suffocated._

'…_that was the second promise,'_

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Everything seemed to be fixed in slow motion.

'Anything.'

'If I ask ya to live with me forever to bind yourself to me, you'll do it.' The girl didn't even look at her she just nodded, Anthrax's hands fell away from her face and she slipped downwards onto the balls of her feet resigned. She'd failed completely.

'Say it then, make it official.' He pressured the girl into it.

'I promise to stay with you forever, if you spare her life.' He smiled lifting off the top hat he wore drumming his fingers against the lid, he spat on his hand and held it out for the girl his eyes shifting between her and Anthrax.

'You got yourself a deal there, Elsie Noir.'

The Hitcher lied of course Anthrax knew he would, he lied and she would die and Elsie was lost the rage burned inside her. Elsie was bungled away sent off with the Piper twins, she knew she would never see her again. She felt strange broken hearted, defeated.

'Why, did you let her do that?' She questioned glancing over at the Hitcher who was busy slipping the necklace down over his neck, back where it belonged.

'Couldn't stop 'ere, you know what a funny girl that Noir is, funny ideas about things and people.' He's in profile but with that last remark he shoots his gaze directly at her, she feels warm.

'You love her don't you?' He tries to hide it but Anthrax knows she's hit upon something secret and sensitive, his narrow shoulders hunch at her words.

'You're right you know, she is a strange girl and she does have funny ideas she trusts you for a start.' His mask is suddenly back, the mask he wears to shield himself and others from the fact that there's something dark and fragile inside of him, he has a soul and a heart.

'Well she ain't wrong there McKinley, I ain't gonna hurt you I can't cus if I do it means that all that what just passed between us meant nothing and I ain't losing Noir again, she belongs to me now.' He grabbed her pulling her body flush against his own squeezing the flesh of the top of her arm painfully making her wince. His long green spindly digits went to the centre of the necklace that hung limply around his throat pressing the centre, with a wicked grin they disappeared.

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'_I promised her my life…'_

_That night was the first time anyone ever struck me, the first and I would like to say last but that wouldn't be true either…_

_Frank hit me I hit him back, I didn't think about it I just did it the same way I do it whenever Anthrax tries to fight me. Although I have always appeared somewhat physically fragile, I am thin I have always been thin I'm not strong like Anthrax but I will fight back. I fought him scratching his face and pulling his hair until we were both bruised, swollen and panting. Our eyes met and I knew in the blink of his eye that he was thinking about striking me again I had him backed up against the wall he raised his arm but before he had the chance I grabbed my pearl handle letter opener which sat on a nearby table. I dug it into his chest hard enough to draw blood and for him to cry out but not hard enough to harm him. I still loved him then._

'_You're not coming.' He warned me, but we both knew that I was._

_The blood rolled down from his chest scarlet rivets sliding between our bodies. I realised then that I would die without him and that I would die with him, that my fate would be bound up in his._

_Frank kissed me and against my better judgement I lowered the blade, giving into his lips letting our anger and frustration evaporate into hungry passionate kisses._

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There was a clock ticking somewhere in the back of her head, ticking away.

Anthrax opened her eyes the first thing she saw was the Hitcher looming sneering down at her, he'd won and he knew it he should have killed her she wished he'd killed her. It only took her a few moments to adjust to her new surroundings the smell hit her first the stench no words could describe such a fowl smell, it made her want to roll up inside herself. She was outside the dark night sky hovering over her the smog was thick, but she could still make out the blackness. The earth was rough beneath her when she shifted scrambling up into a crouching position she realised she'd been lying on bricks, bottles and piles of rubbish.

'You ever been to a Stew, girl?' Something inside Anthrax suddenly froze, the fear inside her killing her senses dead.

'No doubt you was spawned in such a place, girl.' The Hitcher knelt down in front of her, Anthrax refused to look at him staring down at her bare feet instead. He hooked his long green digit up under her chin raising her head so that their eye line met.

'Do you know what they'll do to you in a place like this, a girl like you what noone knows who has so many fine airs about herself.' He whispered his voice low and harsh.

'They'll pass you around a bit first, till that whole of yours is broken and bleeding and they can't fit nothing else in.' He traced the outline of her could numb lips with his rough green thumb.

'Still that's what you've always needed girl, a bloody good seeing too and you'll get one here.' Anthrax felt small suddenly like she was a child again, small and fragile.

'Then when they've bugged ya three ways from Sunday and they've got no more use for ya, they'll skin ya alive girl cus that's what they do round here lots of tanneries round here…smell it in the air that stink go on smell it.' He pinched her chin hard until she opened her mouth and was force to take a lungful of the noxious gas, she spluttered and coughed her body forcefully rejecting it. The Hitcher chuckled letting her face slip from his hands getting back up onto his feet.

'Leather is expensive but your hide ain't. Well it's been good too see you again McKinley, your looking good girl got a bit of colour in them cheeks of yours.' He mused jabbing in the direction of her bruised cheek.

The Hitcher placed his top hat back on his head twirling his cane as he did so, stopping suddenly pulling something out of his pocket.

'Ere this is yours.' He through her old gun towards her it clattered as it hit the floor dislodging a broken bottle.

'If I was you I'd shoot me self, girl.' He informed her shrugging his shoulders.

'And I suppose if you don't wanna do yourself in, you could always get a few of em to stand in a line or somethin' pick a few of 'em off like that. Bout three maybe.' And then the Hitcher was suddenly gone, Anthrax found herself just sitting down as still as was human possible she wasn't thinking wasn't feeling just staring down at the gun wondering if she could do it, what it would feel like. She picked it up it felt colder and heavier in her hands than it had ever felt before. She thought back to that morning when she'd woken up in the warmth with Elsie Noir in her arms she'd felt so lucky, it was strange to think that it had only been that morning and now she was thinking about killing herself she'd lost Elsie, lost the necklace her life was suddenly over. Anthrax raised it up against the side of her head letting the cold metal rest against her pounding temple, she squeezed her eyes shut but she couldn't do it she went through all the permutations in her mind pulling the trigger, hearing the noise, feeling the bullet tearing into her skull and then being dead but she couldn't bring herself to do it, at the last minute she let her hand fall limply back onto her lap.

The sound of rustling behind her told her she wasn't alone.

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_It's a strange feeling when you realise that you've been lied to by the person you love, it's a mixture of heart break, betrayal and uncontrollable rage, I remember a little of how that felt only a little most of it what happened to me is a blur but I remember the feeling of betrayal and the anger when I'd looked down at my glass and realised I'd been drugged, when I watched the look of knowing pleasure cross their features from his to hers and back again._

_I don't remember can't remember anything else all I know is the next time I opened my eyes I was dead and Frank was lifting me carefully out of my coffin._


	10. HairsprayFaye WrayNoirRoofMoonKiss

**Hope everybody had a happy xmas: D**

**Loads I presses from Santa, I got me Russell Brand tickets whoop, whoop so I'm well please lol…**

**Happy New Year 4 Wednesday: D**

**This is dedicated to SisiDraig, BeckyRock-x and chugirl 2526 and xXxBooshLoverxXx and anyone else whose still reading this: D There's not much more left: D**

**Okay I don't own this or Hairspray, or David Bowie's lyrics: D**

**Enjoy and feel free 2 review if u feel like it and have the time: D**

If Ebola ever needs to find Anthrax, if she's ever gone from her side when she wakes up she generally finds her sitting in the cinema. It's not a real cinema it's their home cinema, and Anthrax can generally be found there curled up in one of the red plush velvet seats slurping away on a beer munching down salted popcorn transfixed by the images on the screen. Ebola remembered fondly the first time she ever saw a picture move, she remembers the silence of the early black and whites and then the 'talkies', the first time she ever heard a human voice trapped in a machine. She remembers colour the colour of the sun something she hadn't seen with her own eyes for hundreds of years, and then 3D and now HD. Of course going to the real cinema is something Ebola has only ever done a couple of times with Anthrax, because Anthrax couldn't control herself in such an enclosed space, Ebola still shudders at the thought of how tiresome it was to have to finish off the entire cinema, thankfully they'd been watching _Robin Williams _in one of his dramatic roles so the cinema had been comparatively empty. She also remembered somewhat fondly Anthrax tying her to the banister and getting her to do her best _Faye Wray _impression after they'd seen _King Kong _for the first time. _'So are you the gorilla?' _Ebola had asked mid scream.

Anthrax was watching _Hairspray _with Lizette and George sitting either side of her, while she bopped her head to the songs. Ebola actually liked the songs and the film the first three times she saw it, but she's sick of it now she's sick of the DVD always being stuck in the player and she's sick of having to listen to the soundtrack over and over again in the limo, her limo.

'I wish the 60's had been like that Mac, all musical.' Anthrax says every time they watch it. Ebola can't remember much about the 60's or most of the 70's or that early bit of the 90's there'd been so many different types of drugs running through so many blood streams that it's all a bit of a blur.

'The Rolling Stones remember them, of course when they were still good…and for the most part alive.' George chuckles next to her.

'You know, I was their dealer.'

'Oh George, you're such a liar.' Lizette giggled her French accent still as thick as the first time Ebola had met her.

'No, no I was I was!' George complained, while Anthrax and Lizette sniggered.

'Miss Amy, tell them!' Ebola grinned rolling her eyes.

'Don't draw me in.' She mused, sometimes she missed having a family she missed the rows and the noise and all the different opinions.

'Well I was, I'm not saying I was their main dealer…'

'But you sold 'em a bag of blow down an alley once.' Anthrax teased cutting him off.

'I don't have to listen to this.'

'Then don't.' Anthrax shot back folding her arms tightly across her chest, huffing loudly the young man left without another word Lizette soon followed him.

'You shouldn't be cruel.' Ebola chided pouring herself into the seat next to her companion.

'He shouldn't lie.' Everything was black and white to Anthrax.

'I don't think he was.' She opened her mouth to speak glancing at Ebola from the corner of her eye but quickly changed her mind closing her lips. But Anthrax could never stay silent for long and it wasn't long until she was mumbling something under her breath.

'He bloody was.' Anthrax took Ebola by surprise resting her head gently against the crook of her neck; Ebola found herself staring gingerly down at the top of a glossy straight mass of raven hair. Anthrax was hardly ever like this, hardly ever warm and affectionate she was usually angry and forceful or sarcastic and brutal but never warm and loving. In return Ebola stroked her hair letting her slender fingers slide through the short dark strands at the base of her neck.

'This is nice.' Ebola mused.

'Ummm, ssush more hair pulling.' Anthrax ordered her voice approaching something close to a purr, Ebola indulgently giggled and complied as the dark haired woman's head shifted from the crook of her neck to resting against her lap. She turned her body awkwardly in her seat so that her face was staring up at Ebola, she stared at her strangely with a look that Ebola had never seen before.

'I've missed ya, Mac.' Anthrax whispered softly, Ebola was suddenly confused she wasn't aware of ever going anywhere without her companion.

'_I'm happy, hope you're happy too.' _Ebola hummed tracing her index finger down the slope of Anthrax's nose.

'_My Mama said to get things done you better not mess with Major Tom.' _Anthrax replied back their eye contact never shifting, constant. They'd both forgotten to keep breathing, out of the pair of them Ebola had the habit of doing that more often it had after all been three hundred yearssince she'd really needed to breath, her lungs had atrophied and wasted away in her chest.

'Dee I…I…I think I, no I know I, I…' Her voice died in her throat.

'Jeez Mac, spit it out will ya.' Anthrax giggled shifting underneath her, she steeled herself to speak again to finish her sentence but the moment was gone the pleading expression on her companion's face meant nothing, it meant nothing she wasn't stupid she knew. She glanced back up at the plasma screen her porcelain features twisting into a frown.

'God I hate that film.'

Ebola waited for her to say something, anything but nothing came she just gazed up at her and then with a heavy sigh moved back into her own seat.

'We don't get what we want.' Anthrax mused.

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_Of course Anthrax didn't die. Her curse had always been the ability to survive, she'd survived being an orphan, she'd survived the Foundling hospital and the Workhouse, she'd survived the streets and she survived that. It wasn't easy, it was like living in hell but she survived and she promised herself she would never dwell on it what happened what she had done, what had been done to her. She pushed it to the back of her mind, along with it she tried to push all thoughts of Elsie Noir but she couldn't Anthrax couldn't bring herself to forget about the girl, that special funny, vain and silly girl who she loved._

_It took her a year to work her way out of the stew part of her died there the part of her that had still been innocent and young unsoiled by the harsh realities of the world, Mary McKinley died there and Bob Skeleton was born there and Dee Plume was caught somewhere in the middle waiting to be awoken by Ebola. Although she hadn't known it at the time._

_Anthrax couldn't remember how or when Bob Skeleton had first come into the world, she'd been cross dressing since she'd been a teenager it was just easier less people…men were interested in hustling a young boy, well some were but one stiff kick in the privates and she soon dispatched them. In those days she'd never given herself a name just a disguise, just a way of getting from A to B without the constant interference. It wasn't that she was ugly or plain either with a bit of slap on she didn't look like a boy, she looked pretty and the older she'd got the harder it had been to conceal the fact that she'd been a woman her body had become curvier and soft. She was in direct opposition to Ebola who'd always been skinny and bony, the irony had always been that whenever Ebola had tied back her hair and worn a suit she had always looked like a girl in drag never a real boy like Anthrax. But it wasn't just the clothes Anthrax believed that it would have been better if she'd been born a boy, that it was a cruel twist of fate and DNA that she was female. And the of course there was the other thing, the unfortunate thing for her at least it had deprived her of a living the fact that she'd always had a revolution to men the way they looked, the way they tried to touch her it had always made her feel sick. She guessed it had something to do with her upbringing in both the Foundling Hospital and the Workhouse she'd been surrounded by girls and women both young and old she'd never had any early contact with men, and when she eventually did she'd hated it, it was a foul stench ridden memory that she pushed deep into the back of her mind never to be remembered or repeated._

_Anthrax had always believed that she was designed for more than the life she had been born into, she'd looked around at her contemporaries the few friends she'd managed to make and she knew there was more that she was special. That's why she turned down so many jobs, that's what she told herself at least. She'd been lucky to end up in the Foundling Hospital and not the numerous baby farms that had filled up London at the time of her birth; someone had cared enough about her once to place her in an institution she hadn't just been abandoned out on the street or stepped over by her own Mother. When she'd been very small she'd flirted with the idea that her Mother had been a Duchess or a Princess or at worst a great actress, she'd held onto that idea until she'd been fourteen when she'd been released from the care of the hospital when she'd received the one thing her Mother had left for her, all the babies in the Foundling hospital had a gift something that had been left for them by their parent so that when they grew up they would know that someone somewhere had loved them. All the gifts differed depending on what the parent had, had on them at the time of the handing over, one of her friends had received a soil gold fob watch, Anthrax had expectantly waited for her tiara but when she'd opened her bundle she'd discovered a clump of soiled old rags twisted into a knot, so that was her Mother and that was her. The hospital had provided her with the basics she knew how to write and how to read, simple Maths how to pray and when to say 'please' and 'thank you' in all the right places, she was offered numerous jobs as maids and cooks she was even offered the position of a hat makers apprentice but she turned them all down, she was never going to be a maid and she was never going to make hats to adorn lazy pig faced rich women's heads. That's how she'd ended up in the Workhouse, she'd been so stubborn and so desperate that there'd been nothing else no other option is was that or starve and she still could have starved there. The work she'd done in that place had been hard and above all pointless she hadn't been use to it she'd worked since she could stand but it had been mostly sewing and bead work, not beating hemp. Her hands had bled and every muscle in her body had cried out in twisting torture, there'd been no rest only a few hours snatched sleep and then right back to it as soon as it was light enough to work, after her experience in the Workhouse she'd taken the first job offer she'd received it had been as a waitress in a pie and mash shop. The money wasn't bad and there'd been a room and there'd been another waitress there Elsie Noir._

_Elsie Noir hadn't been like any other human being Anthrax had ever encountered, she'd been the devil. The devil in the body of a perfect pretty angle, she was cruel so cruel she knew the effect she had on people and she exploited it torturing them for her own amusement. But she was sweet so sweet that Anthrax was pretty sure that Elsie could turn teeth rotten. She had the habit of talking to the eels that were delivered to the shop fresh and still alive, explaining to them apologetically that she was just doing her job and 'no hard feelings' before she hacked off their heads. Elsie was also a lot like Anthrax she too felt like there was more to her existence than just to be the same as everyone else to fall into line, her dreams were of performing in her previous life before she'd arrived in London she'd been a renowned singer, well in the small market town she had lived. After meeting Elsie Anthrax had indentified the missing part of herself she was a performer too, that's what she'd been waiting for what had made her special. Elsie worked the nightclubs and the music halls but she never got lucky however many auditions she had her act was considered to unpolished and provincial she was just another pretty blonde with a nice voice. Anthrax was the one who brought up the double act first the idea was that Elsie would sing and Anthrax would…well she couldn't do much she'd try anything once though._

_He overheard them. The Hitcher had been a regular before Anthrax had arrived, he liked Elsie, Elsie for her part had always felt sorry for him she'd always given him extras when he'd ordered. The Hitcher offered to invest in them to buy them costumes, too polish their act pay for dancing and singing lessons as long as he managed them and took a percentage of their earnings. They'd agreed because they were getting nowhere fast on their own, they went out or at least Elsie did night after night inviting herself to the music hall parties trying to catch the eye of a wealthy patron someone who would do exactly what the Hitcher had offered._

_Elsie was a natural she only needed a few lessons to strengthen her voice and only a few more to learn how to pull the most perfect shapes, Anthrax on the other hand couldn't sing she was tone deaf the dancing part was almost as bad she'd felt too self conscious, too trapped by her own skin. The Hitcher suggested the escapology as an angle for their act, Anthrax would get locked in boxes and suspended in water while Elsie sung and danced it was a strange mix but it worked, it was a unique selling point. The fact that Elsie had also designed costumes, which were virtually see through and covered in sequins was also somewhat of a crowd drawer. _

'_You could always call yourselves the Frog and the Mick.' The Hitcher had suggested when the problem of a name for their act had raised its head._

'_I think that might offend too many people in the audience.' Anthrax had shot back._

'_Is there gonna be frogs in this, Boss?' One of the Piper three twins had asked._

_Noir and McKinley hadn't fitted together, and Elsie had stubbornly refused to change her last name she claimed that her Great Grandfather had been a French Duke who'd fled to England penniless during the Terror and had gone on to Father half the county. Apart from the name there was nothing French about Elsie she'd been born in Somerset and spoke with a thick West Country accent. In the end Anthrax decided to drop her old name instead it had never really felt as if it had been hers in the first place, going along with the French theme she'd remembered something she once read about nom de plume being a pseudonym, so from that she'd finally come up with Miss Delia Plume, Noir and Plume fitted together better._

_When Anthrax actually fell for Elsie Noir she could never be entirely sure it could have been the first time she had seen her or any of the times in between, it gradually became harder to be around a share a bed with her. They slept together but it was just sharing a bed they didn't have sex, they just lay there side by side Anthrax in desperate denial and Elsie blissfully unaware and deep asleep. _

_Things came to a head a year after they first met, they'd been at a new years eve party in a pub across the road from the shop Anthrax had lost sight of Elsie sometime during the night eventually she'd realised that the other woman had left more than a little worse for wear Anthrax had gone out to find her. She'd gone back to the shop and the room that they shared in the flat above it, the room had been empty but there had been a whole in the roof and a chair just bellow it, Anthrax had glanced up frowning as the dark starry nights sky had twisted above her head. She poked her head up through the whole and there Elsie had been leaning against the chimney gazing up at the full moon, she'd smiled drunkenly and realised she was a goner._

'_Oi, oi.' Anthrax had giggled as she'd struggled through the gap in the roof tiles. _

'_Happy new century!' Elsie had called back slurring her words._

'_It's a bit early for that Elsie, we've got another twenty years till it's another century.' Anthrax had informed her._

'_Oh…, well happy another twenty years till then, then.' Elsie had mused her face caught between a look of confusion, concentration and a wide grin._

'_Yeah, you coming down sweetheart it's freezing up 'ere come back to the party.' She held out her hand but the other woman ignored it, glancing back up at the sky._

'_You can see it all from up here, the whole world.' Anthrax stared out for the first time out into the darkness over the faint shimmering outline of the city, she heard the singing and the screaming she felt above it all above everything, light. _

'_Well it ain't the whole world.'_

'_Oh it is, it is the whole world! Its all so alive.' Anthrax supposed to someone who'd grown up surrounded by fields and trees and wide open spaces London would feel like the whole world, but to her it was just the same old thing even the bits of it that looked different the new buildings and the parks they were still the same she'd never been outside of the City she never thought she ever would._

'_He gave me this for Christmas.' The sudden subject change had jarred against Anthrax already addled mind. She looked at the bracelet watching it glitter as it caught the gleam from the pale moon light. It was what Anthrax had been the most afraid of. _

'_You gonna give it back to him, ain't you?' Elsie had suddenly grown very quite as she stared intently at the shiny bangle, twisting her wrist from side to side letting the light catch it from different angles._

'_It's only sex.' She replied._

'_Yes but its sex with him the Hitcher, you'd really let him…really?' Anthrax found herself sitting on the roof next to her friend._

'_He's not so bad, I've been with a lot worse and he's done a lot for us.' Elsie said after a few minute of quite contemplation._

'_So you feel like you owe him?'_

'_No not really, I just think it's somethin' he's wanted for a long time and maybe I should just, I didn't get him anything for Christmas.'_

'_I didn't get him anything for Christmas but I ain't gonna fuck him, Elsie you're pissed come on down and I'll put ya in bed.' She tried to reach out for her but Elsie pulled away, frowning._

'_Yes but you're never going to fuck him are you, you're never going to fuck any of them men.' Anthrax heart stopped and her eyebrows raised, her whole body seemed to miss a beat._

'_What, what's that supposed to mean. I've urgh, I've fucked before I ain't no fucking virgin!'_

'_Yes, but you've never fucked a man have you! I'm not stupid Mary or blind I might not be able to read words like you but I can read people I know people and I know you I saw you at the party with that girl you were all over her, and I know about you and that dancer that Ballerina at the Opera house!'_

'_Don't.' She breathed softly._

'_Don't be a silly bitch; you're drunk you don't know what you're saying.' She tried to laugh it off, but it just wasn't funny._

'_Look Mary it don't bother me, as I said before its just sex it don't matter not really. I lost my virginity under a table in my local pub, I ain't judging you I'm the last person what's gonna judge you.'_

'_You, what, when…judging me how the fuck, what?' Before Anthrax had known what was happening Elsie's lips had been on her own. She'd frozen, unable to move while the other woman had kissed her she'd felt warm and cold at the same time. And then she'd realised what was happening and Elsie's mouth had drawn her in, her lips had been so smooth and warm, Anthrax had gasped as Elsie's tongue had slipped wantonly between her lips. Grabbing the side of her head she pulled her closer roughly wanting more of her, needing to taste to feel all of her. And then they'd finally parted and they'd both found themselves staring at each other breathing heavily and smiling._

'_Come on.' Elsie had made the first move again taking Anthrax's cold hand in her own and precariously leaving her seat by the chimney sliding back down the whole in the roof she gestured for the other woman to join her back in the relative warmth and safety of the room they shared. _


	11. New Years Eve

**Happy New Year: D**

**Thought I'd sneak in a last post before I gotta get ready 2 go out…whoop: D**

**My last post of 2008 whoop scary, I'm gonna be 22 next year scarier: D**

**Thanks 2 SisiDraig, BeckyRocks-x, xXxBooshLoverxXx and of course chugirl 2526 I will reply 2 u guys later separately 4 ur amazing reviews: D**

**This is short but hopefully enjoyable: D**

**I don't own this: D **

'_They use to tell us that we were all born from fire and tribulation.' Anthrax had mused as they lay side by side their heads resting together the mixture of black and gold tangling together. The room was thick with the sound of their shared heavy breathing, the crack of the fire in the small grate and the sweat drying._

'_Hummm.' Elsie had hummed, holding her hands up making patterns of butterflies and rabbits in the reflected shadows from the fire with her fingers._

'_Do you think…' Elsie breathed her voice had been low and sleepy._

'_What?' Anthrax had questioned as she'd rolled onto her side facing the woman next to her, giving Elsie her full attention. Elsie stared at her for a few moments chewing on her bottom lip before giggling softly._

'_No what is it tell me.' Anthrax had probed as she'd run her fingers across the other woman's soft forehead._

'_Well…do you think the bustle might make a comeback?' _

'_The bustle! Jesus!' Anthrax had giggled smashing Elsie in the face with her pillow. They didn't fight for long, it had only been a matter of time before Anthrax had won and Elsie had lost interest._

'_But seriously the other day I went passed this shop and I saw this dress and all I could think was 'that dress needs a bustle', so maybe I'll bring it back wear it on stage. Would you wear one? If I stitched it on the back of your costume, I'd put some feathers on it I know you like 'em.' It had been her turn to go quite for a few moments while she considered the alterations._

'_Alrigh', but no bloody sequins.'_

_After that night everything and nothing seemed to change, on the outside at least. They still rehearsed, argued and squabbled; Elsie still flirted with anything with a pulse including the Hitcher. But at night when they went back to their room when they closed the door everything seemed to change, when it was just the two of them._

'_Do you ever think about kiddies?' Elsie had asked one night, when they had both been engaged in their separate activities, she had been sitting cross legged on the floor next to the fire making adjustments to one of their costumes, while Anthrax had been sat on the bed wearing only her kimono and a top hat a cigarette hanging out of her mouth as she strummed away on the guitar on her lap._

'_Can't say as I have.' Anthrax had commented struggling with one of the cords only half listening. _

'_I have.' Elsie had informed._

'_I know exactly what I want two boys and two girls.' Anthrax had forgotten about the guitar for a few moments, sitting back in the bed she took a long drag from her cigarette focusing on the woman on the floor._

'_I bet them imaginary brats of yours have got names as well.' She'd chuckled._

'_So what if they have!' Elsie had frowned defensively. _

'_Well ain't it generally up to the man to do the picking.'_

'_Na, that's old fashioned. Anyway my names are better.' Elise had mused with a matter-of-factly nod._

'_Go on then tell me, since your only gonna tell me anyway.' _

'_Well for the boys I thought Vincent and Walter, and the girls Merle and Opal. My Pa was called Vincent and my Granddad, it's a tradition all the men in my family are called Vince Noir.' _

'_Hang on thought Elsie, the kid ain't gonna be a Noir is it it's gonna be a whatever, you know whatever the Father's last name is. It ain't gonna be a Noir is it.' Elsie thought about this for a few more moments._

'_I never thought of that.'_

'_You don't say.'_

_It soon became clear however that their double act wasn't really a double act at all it was all about her and Elsie, Anthrax was pushed more and more into the sidelines watching from the wings while her other half had more and more solos. She'd felt like a gimmick Elsie was a real star. Everything came to an end Anthrax had always been painfully aware of that more aware than most, everything had a time and she'd been afraid that her time in the sun, the time she spent with Elsie was running out. She didn't care about the fame, she didn't care about the money they never really had any she would have given all that up in a heart beat for Elsie. But that was the problem that was the conflict that ate away at them at what they could have had, Anthrax had been ready to make a hundred percent commitment to them whatever the cost, while Elsie hadn't been ready or willing not at that time to give it all up she was like an addict, addicted to the attention, the adulation and the spot light. Anthrax couldn't compete with that._

_There was a fortune teller at a party once a middle aged woman dressed as a gypsy, Elsie had been entranced by her she'd raved on about gypsy fashion how they were going to make a 'come back', how they should both be dressed a gypsies next time they went on stage. She read their fortunes, Anthrax's had gone along the lines of 'you'll meet a stranger who will changer your life' while Elsie's had been surprisingly 'you are destined to suffer', the fortune teller had ended to session by telling them that they would 'die forever'. Anthrax had shrugged it off but Elsie couldn't, the idea of suffering seemed to have struck a cord with her, and she threw herself into a life of getting lost in parties and living to excess. She even dressed to excess; she'd stared to look like a cross between a prostitute and someone from the far distant future. _

_Two things happened during this period that seemed to spark off or lead onto everything else that followed like the ripples on a pond. The first was The Hitcher's devotion to Elsie, which had reached almost religious proportions. And the second had been Elsie herself, she'd always been overly tactile and flirtatious she never knew when to stop, when to call it a day or when it was getting out of hand. Mostly the men would see the light hearted side of it however frustrated, but then other times they wouldn't and Anthrax would have to step in. But once Anthrax hadn't been there she'd been there but she hadn't been there in time, the Hitcher had stepped in and without warning he'd slashed the throat of Elsie's assailant. Elsie had been on her knees covered in the spray of the blood staring at him, not crying just looking as if finally she'd seen what everyone else had always seen that he was a monster._

'_How are you feeling?' Anthrax had asked three days after the attack, it had been three whole days since Elsie had last spoken._

'_I don't know.' She whispered softly._

'_You'll feel better soon, 'ere drink this.' Anthrax had kissed her forehead and handed her the small chipped cup of tea._

'_I changed my mind.' After the longest time Elsie had spoken again._

'_What about sweetheart?'_

'_I want to leave I want to leave him, I can't…I don't want to end up like that I want us to go.' Although she'd been scared Anthrax's overriding feeling had been that of relief, she'd come to the same conclusion that they should go months before. Before they left however Elsie had got it into her head that they should steal something from the Hitcher. She distracted him while Anthrax had stolen the item it had been a necklace, which had had the ability to transport a person anywhere they wished to go and at any time it went beyond the confines of time and space as they soon discovered. They travelled with the aid of their new trinket throughout time and space, but in the end they'd ended up back in London three years after they'd first left. Anthrax had wrongly believed that, that would have been enough time for the heat to die down and for the Hitcher to forget about them but the Hitcher didn't forget about them._

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It was New Years Eve and Anthrax was waiting for Ebola, Ebola who had promised she'd only be five minutes an hour and half ago. So this was how she'd ring in the new year alone. She'd glanced down and seen Ebola's phone flashing away on the stick table in front of her, she picked it up and scrolled through the contact list. There were so many names some jumped out some old vampires they both knew, some new names she didn't recognize and then she'd seen the initials FF and she'd known it was him. She checked Ebola's messages her mail box was filled with his texts, she had fourteen missed calls from him Frank Fielding. He'd popped up every now and then since Anthrax had been with Ebola, he was like a bad smell and Ebola couldn't say no to him, he always took always wanted something from her usually money, Anthrax hated him.

'Happy New Year, Dee.' Ebola had appeared planting a kiss on her lips.

'Yeah…Happy New Year.'


	12. The Lovecats

**Soz that I still haven't had a chance 2 get back 2 my reviewers I've got the flu n I'm back at uni, n I have 2 essays due next week so this is my last post 4 2 weeks…lol…I'm gonna do 14 chapters so there's only 2 left just 2 let u know: D**

**Hope u like this: D**

**Thanks 2 SisiDraig 4 reviewing my last chapter: D**

**And also 2 BeckyRocks-x, xXxBooshLoverxXx and chugirl 2526 4 reviewing the one before: D**

**Hope u like it: D**

**I don't own this.**

'I'm sorry; I didn't mean to miss it.' Ebola informed tentatively, tucking her skirt up underneath her as she took up the space next to Anthrax on the cold damp stone steps. Anthrax is pensive, generally her face betrays her slightest emotion but tonight she's unreadable just sitting and staring watching the fireworks light up the river.

'It's just another year what difference does it make.' She frowns, above the roar of the revilers Ebola slips her hand in Anthrax's, Anthrax doesn't fight her she doesn't even acknowledge her hand they just sit there silently holding hands.

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_Although three years had passed Anthrax and Elsie weren't any older, they were the same ages as the day they had first left. They'd been naive to the point of stupidity believing that the Hitcher wouldn't want the necklace and Elsie back. They were so naïve that when they arrived back in London they didn't even bother to change their names, Anthrax had got a job in a circus troop and Elsie had been her dresser. It was never going to be permanent it was just a way of making some money a breathing space until they'd decided what they'd wanted to do next, plus Elsie couldn't stay away from the stage long she missed being the centre of everyone's attention. _

_Eventually Anthrax path crossed Elsie Noir and the Hitcher's only this time she had been in her Bob Skeleton disguise, she'd been working as a body guard she'd earned a reputation for herself in the underworld noone had suspected she was a woman. She'd been sitting in a bar drinking a beer at a table close enough to her client so that she could rush in if anything went off but not close enough to be suspicious, and then she'd seen her Elsie had waltzed into the room obviously already drunk swaying slightly one strap of her gaudy dress hanging down from her shoulder, followed by the Hitcher and the ever faithful Piper twins. Anthrax had been shocked by the change in her friend the light behind her eyes had died; she'd looked like she was ready for the end. She couldn't stand to see her like that, but she hadn't been able to drag her eyes away either. The night had stretched on and during the course Elsie had proceeded to get drunker and drunker and Anthrax had proceeded to watch her in the process, feeling so close but so far away at the same time. She was mixing her drinks red wine, gin, port even a little absinthe; it was the absinthe that finished her off. The Hitcher had dragged her outside and Anthrax had followed watching as he'd screamed at her, and she'd laughed at him he'd wanted to kill her both Elsie and Anthrax had seen the familiar look in his eye but he'd pulled back from the edge and retreated inside passing Anthrax, he hadn't recognized her because he hadn't been looking he'd just seen a boy in his way._

_Elsie had been crying kneeling on the wet pavement outside of the bar sobbing. Anthrax had thought about leaving turning her back and going inside, but she couldn't turn her back not on someone she loved not on someone who'd sacrificed themselves for her._

_Anthrax hadn't said anything not at first she'd just held out her hankie._

'_There, there miss don't take on so.' She'd whispered her voice thick, as Bob she always tried to speak a little deeper it was a habit that she couldn't break._

'_It's just the drink let me call you a Cab you'll feel better in the morning.'_

'_I don't want to wake up in the morning.' Elsie had breathed, her lips betraying her secret. Anthrax couldn't stand it she fell down onto her knees next to her former lover._

'_Elsie.' Elsie stared at her for a few moments her face blank, she'd never been the quickest it had taken her a few moments to recognise Anthrax but once she had she'd thrown her slender arms tightly around her neck clinging to her as if she'd been drowning._

'_Mary, Mary, Mary!' She'd cried._

'_It is you? It is you.' Elsie had pulled away grabbing the sides of her face turning it from side to side. She took Anthrax by surprise by slapping her hard across the face._

'_What the fuck was that for?' Anthrax had frowned touching her cheek in a mixture of pain and confusion._

'_That was for taking your time! It's been two bloody years what took you so long?' The realisation that Elsie had been waiting for her to rescue her from the Hitcher hit Anthrax like a ton of bricks she'd felt angry and humbled. Angry because it wasn't her job to do the rescuing and humbled because she never had, it had never been on her mind to find Elsie or to save her from the Hitcher._

'_I'm sorry.' She'd admitted guiltily._

'_It doesn't matter you here, you're really here that's all that matters.' She tried to fight it she tried to fight against it but it was inevitable, Anthrax knew for the sake of both of them she should have gone back inside but Elsie had always been like a drug she had a way of always pulling her back in._

_Anthrax didn't say anything; she didn't try to stop Elsie when she kissed her she didn't pull away, she didn't try to stop her when she hailed a Cab, she said nothing when she was inside she couldn't. It didn't take them long to drive back across town, much to Anthrax's surprise they'd stopped outside of the pie and mash shop they'd both once worked Elsie still lived in the flat above the shop._

'_Are you coming inside?' Elsie had asked between kisses, Anthrax had been so close to saying 'no' she hadn't needed the hassle there were other girls London was populated by other girls, but it was this girl she couldn't get over._

'…_I…what about 'im the Hitcher won't he be back?' Anthrax had asked nervously. _

'_No he doesn't come here at night, he wouldn't dare.' Elsie had informed her defiantly, there was something a streak of steel running through Elsie that hadn't been there before._

_The flat was different when Anthrax had lived there it had been divided up into several different rooms each with numerous occupants, it had now been turned into one large space and the previous occupants shipped out. Anthrax had admired the space she'd never been anywhere so big, the walls have been covered by flyers and images of dancers and famous actresses, famous acts there had been a few flyers with Elsie face on them more and more as Anthrax had gone further into the room._

'_I didn't think you'd still live 'ere, I wasn't sure.'_

'_I weren't sure either.' Elsie had replied, for the first time Anthrax had really had the chance to look at her she'd been thinner and she'd changed the colour of her hair it had gone from blonde, to black to red bright rich scarlet it suited her._

_When Anthrax had woken up it hadn't quite been morning she could see the thick navy night sky through the open window, the thin net had been fluttering in the night-time breeze. She'd glanced around confused by her surroundings Elsie had been missing the rumbled space in the bed next to her had been cold. The bedroom door hand opened and she'd heard rustling through the gloomy darkness and another noise like a squeal._

'_Pass me that.' Elsie voice had rung out._

'_No on the nightstand pass it here, he won't sleep with out it.' Anthrax had fumbled her nimble fingers brushing against something soft and plush she'd held the object out without even trying to discover what it was. _

'_There we go.' Another squeal had followed._

'_Still ain't no good, huh? Shift over.' Anthrax had moved over onto her side of the bed pulling the sheet back Elsie had slipped in next to her, and that's when she'd seen the baby on her lap, it wasn't really a baby it looked more like a toddler Anthrax had blinked in the darkness._

'_Put the light on you don't like the dark do you Vince, there's a candle and matches next to you.' Anthrax fumbled about but it didn't take her long to locate the matches or the candle she struck a match lighting the wick, casting the room into a sudden pale amber glow._

'_There ain't that better my little lover.' Elsie had cooed her accent sounding particularly strong she'd planted a kiss on the baby's pale forehead it had been as pale as its Mother. _

'_Is it.' She'd choked on her words._

'_Is it his?' Elsie had chuckled._

'_He wishes you were don't he Vince.' She'd had a strange expression on her face as she'd gazed at the baby in her arms it had been warm and fuzzy, it had reminded Anthrax of the fact that noone had ever looked at her like that. The baby had been lucky and he'd never know it, he'd be lucky because he'd never know what it was like to be a Motherless orphan. _

'_So who's the Father?'_

'_Don't know.' Elsie had answered unashamed._

'_Just some boy.' Anthrax had huffed a little under her breath and Elsie had planted a reassuring kiss on her cheek._

'_It don't mean nothing I never forgot about you I just, well truth be told you know I always wanted a baby. Ere hold him.' Before Anthrax could protest the baby had been thrust into her arms he stared at her and she stared at him. He was the prettiest baby she had ever seen not that she ever gave much notice to babies in generally, however he was the prettiest she was sure of that. He'd looked more like a girl than a boy, with large expressive blue eyes which drew her in, long eyelashes and the most kissable pout his hair had been thin and tuffty._

'_Vince this is Mary she's Mummy's friend, Mummy loves her very much.' Elsie had told the baby._

'_Mary this is Vince he's very pleased to me you although he won't say so.' She'd tickled the baby's chubby tummy and he'd giggled._

_That's how and when Anthrax had first met Vince Noir. _

_It didn't take long for Anthrax to succumb to Vince's considerable charm; it felt like the family she'd never known she'd always wanted. Elsie had been telling the truth when she said that the Hitcher never came to her flat at night he never came to her flat full stop he always met her outside of the theatre before she started work, Anthrax moved in. It was a really, really stupid thing to do but she couldn't stop herself, she couldn't leave them alone the Hitcher wasn't the only one who met Elsie at the theatre Anthrax would climb through the window of her dressing room._

'_Kidnap me.' Elsie had mused one night._

'_What?' Anthrax had been beyond confused, taking the cigarette out of her mouth she'd coughed her chest aching it was a cough she never seemed to be able to shift. Elsie had rested her head on the crook of Anthrax's shoulder waiting for her to finish, with a shaky gasping breath her cough had subsided._

'_Continue.' She'd smiled gazing up at the cracked and peeling whitewashed bedroom ceiling above them._

'_I've been thinking about it and I think you should kidnap me, I can't stand this anymore I've got to get away from him its not just for me I'm thinking about Vince.' She'd waved her hand in the direction of Vince's cot, which sat underneath the bedroom window he'd been fast asleep. Anthrax had tried to speak but Elsie cut her off._

'_No, no listen to me please this will work I know it will it has to. You could kidnap me wearing a disguise and, and I could change my name and we could dress Vince up like a little girl we could call him Tricia Patricia is my Mother's name, and..and you could wear that…' She'd nodded at Anthrax's rumbled suit which had lay on the bedroom floor._

'_I could pretend to be your wife and we could say Vince was your our son.' Elsie had blushed and gone all shy._

'_My wife?' _

'_Or something.' She'd whispered under her breath._

'_Or something.' Anthrax had echoed, the question hanging above them like the smoke from her cigarette._

'_We could go to America…look.' The wall behind the bed had been covered by pictures, posters, flyers, dried flowers and fabric butterflies Elsie had pulled off one of these items thrusting it in Anthrax face._

'_America look,' She pointed at the image of the statue of Liberty._

'_We could go by boat like them,' Elsie jabbed at the shadowy outline of people on a boat in the ad. _

'_What, what does it say?' She questioned pointing at the words; Anthrax had squinted in the half light of the room as she read._

'_You know it wouldn't be easy. It would be hard really, really hard Vince might get sick. We could lose everything. It's a long way, you ever been on a boat?' Elsie shook her head the enthusiasm had been burning across her features._

'_Vince is a strong baby he won't get sick I'll wrap him up nice and warm, he won't get sick.' Anthrax was doubtful, was it healthy for a baby to be so pale?_

_When Elsie had been asleep Anthrax had slipped out of the bed they shared, she hadn't been able to sleep she couldn't turn the thoughts in her head off. It was a stupid crazy idea most of Elsie's ideas were stupid and crazy she regularly managed to get herself trapped in cabinets, but there was something different about this one something which told her that it could be done. She still remembers that night staring out of the open window gazing at impassive immovable moon._

'_So what do you think? Do you think it'll work?' She'd asked the moon. Anthrax had glanced down at the cot, which had sat in front of the window, Vince had been awake and blinking at her. He never cried, he never made any noise he just seemed to stare a lot and giggle, was that normal?_

'_Hello Littleman,' She'd cooed as she'd lifted him gently out of his cot, holding a baby was anything but second nature to her she was still terrified of breaking him even though Elsie had reassured her than she'd dropped Vince on his head more than once and he'd been fine a little spaced out but fine._

'_How do you feel about being my son? Do you like it? I like it, I like you I like you Mummy…a lot.'_

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Anthrax dialled the number and waited she huffed at the sound of the dialling tone.

'_Hi.'_

She cancelled the call at the sound of the familiar voice, which had greeted her. She'd been just about to put the mobile back in Ebola's handbag when it had suddenly exploded into life in her hand. Anthrax glanced at the display it was him, against her better judgement she answered the call.

'_Amy, why did you put the phone down?' _She breathes and he chuckles.

'_Not Amy,' _Frank muses, he even sounds like a smarmy git over the phone.

'_You're at bit old for the whole heavy breathing thing aren't you, Delia?'_

'_Fuck off!' _Anthrax has never met anyone else who has the ability to make her so angry so fast, everything about Frank makes her skin crawl.

'_So eloquent.' _He laughs at her, he's always laughing at her. She forgets what she wanted to say, what the whole point of this was.

'_What do you want, I'll say it slowly I know you're a little underprivileged.' _If he'd been standing in front of her she would have kicked the shit out of him by now.

'_Okay. Is the organ grinder there?' _

'_Don't call her again, I'm warning you.' _Anthrax's puts the phone down, they both know she doesn't make idol threats like they both know that he'll call Ebola again.


	13. Still fond

**This was meant 2 be the chapter before the last one but I'm afraid I'm gonna drag this torture out 4 even longer with another 2 chapters…soz…**

**I'm now officially half way through the 1****st**** semester of the third year how scary is that: D**

**Thanks 2 SisiDraig and chugirl 2526 4 reviewing the last chapter: D**

**And 2 everyone else who read it hope u liked this, I know this story is pretty lame it's not the way I really wanted it 2 be I think it kind of got away from me a bit…lol…**

**The song is by **_**Cut of your hands **_**it's me and my boyfriends official couply song lol…since we saw the band live when we were in New Zealand it's such a coolio song if u don't know the band check up out on utube: D**

**I don't own this…or the song…**

Ebola didn't come back with Anthrax that morning, they'd had a fight and the older blonde woman had stormed off dragging some clueless willing victim behind her. Anthrax had expected her to be there waiting for her when she got home, to have that _'why don't you just fucking die again' _expression plastered across her alabaster features but as Anthrax stated before Ebola wasn't there when she returned. She waited most of the morning for her wide awake staring up at her coffin lid the space feeling empty next to her, in all the time she'd ever been a vampire she'd never slept alone. It felt isolating and alien she felt as if she wanted to crawl out of her own skin. Anthrax must have fallen asleep at some point because when she opened her eyes again Ebola still wasn't back. Generally Anthrax would worry even though she didn't act or look like the sort of person who did she in fact did, she worried a lot especially about Ebola. But she wasn't worried she was angry, she knew that if anything had happened to Ebola she would have felt it they were one person they shared the same blood, but she didn't feel it she felt empty.

Anthrax got up in the middle of the day something she hadn't done since she'd been alive, the curtains in the bedroom were thick and she was protected from the deadly sunlight by a layer of thick protective black-out blind. She dressed quickly tossing on the clothes she'd been wearing the night before, Anthrax left the bedroom making her way across the landing. There were no window the rest of the way, they lived in a flat it was an ultra modern new build all exposed wood and metal and primary colours. Their front door was red. They'd had a house once it had always been Ebola's from the time before she had become a Vampire it had been a crumbling heap, but they'd really loved that place it was bombed in the war, some war that Anthrax can't exactly remember there's been so many. After that they became a bit nomadic, they had bases in most of the major cities in the world but none of them were ever like that old house they were all just somewhere to stash their coffins never homes.

They'd been walking along one night when Ebola had suddenly stopped she'd noticed the development sign that had been attached to a high metal fence. Ebola always noticed things, notices things. When Anthrax had peered through the fencing all she'd seen was a building site surrounding an old patch of scorched barren earth. Ebola had contacted the estate agents through the internet; she hadn't even consulted Anthrax before she'd bought one of the flats.

'_You don't know where we are, do you?'_ Ebola had asked her the evening they'd gone to exchange contracts and keys.

Anthrax had shrugged, and Ebola had rolled her eyes pointing out of the balcony windows in the living room. She'd soaked in the view the sight of the city opening up and glowing.

'_Oh God Dee you can be thick sometimes! Don't you recognise the view?' _And then she had, she'd realised where they were they were standing back in their old house in the exact space where their old house had once stood before the unfortunate incident with the exploding.

In their flat they only had three bedrooms one for Anthrax and Ebola, one for Lizette and Mrs Pettifer and one for George who had to sleep alone because he was a boy. She's never been in George's room before it's disordered and smelly there are to many unwashed socks and porn mags the gloomy half lit walls are covered in pictures of topless models and obscure guitar bands, it's like he's trying a little to hard to be a man. She taps the lid of his coffin and it slides open almost instantly.

'Alright Miss Delia,' He says with a yawn staring up at her.

'Not overslept have I?' Anthrax will never understand the mentality of a servant, if anyone woke her up in the middle of the day she'd pull their head literally off their shoulders but George is as amiable as ever ready and willing to serve.

'No, no I…it's Mac she hasn't come back.'

_Girl you need to know this now,  
even though it may not show,  
but I still love you more and more each day,  
sometimes I can be so harsh,  
sometimes you can be so harsh,  
its ok to say we always thought it would be fine._

After the argument the first place Ebola went was back to that shop it didn't take her long, she let her superior sense of smell lead the way. She's never wanted to kill so badly, but she wants to kill him Vince Noir she watches the lights in the flat above the shop she can smell him. Ebola wants to hurt him she wants to make him cry she longs to hear him scream, she wants to hurt him because ultimately she wants to hurt Anthrax and punish herself. It wouldn't take a second they've already made the mistake of inviting them in, the idiot would be dead in seconds along with the ape the Shaman she would save till later its Vince she wants. A million delightful punishments skip across her mind she wants to cut bits of him off like his hair she'd cut that off first, and then his fingers. The eyes would be the last thing to go those terrible eyes of his that look to much like his Mother's, she'd pluck them out of his head. Ebola might not even kill him she'd make him a Vampire living inside a disfigured shell, trapped just like that Mother of his. The ears would stay so that he could hear the screams of horror when he entered a room.

But deep down inside Ebola can't bring herself to do it, it's all just a dream a fantasy she may be a killer but she isn't cruel. She pulls out her mobile and for the first time in a long time she suddenly realises the one person she wants to speak to she can't bring herself to do it, she calls him instead she calls Frank. As soon as she puts the phone back into her bag he's next to her grinning away she'd forgotten how fast he can travel.

'Dearest Amy,' He teases her and she smiles, trying hard not to cry.

'Do you want to get a drink?' She asks him, when she's with him she can almost pretend that Anthrax doesn't exist, Ebola returns to a time when she really was young and alive.

'Always.' Frank chuckles, holding out his arm for her she takes it resting her head on his shoulder its familiar its safe because she doesn't feel anything he can't hurt her because there's nothing to hurt when she's with him she really does feel dead both inside and out.

'I know a little bar its not far away, I think you might like it.' That's Frank's problem she admits with a lopsided smile he's always known the location of a little bar not far away. Ebola turns her head glancing back at the flat above the shop a pang of regret flows through her, if she told Frank their was a Shaman inside he'd knock the door down to get to him it would be like old times when they use to finish off whole towns, entire families but she keeps silent and bites her tongue she doesn't have the stomach for that anymore.

The little bar not far away is actually quite nice she's surprised; there they fill up on vodka and cheap red wine. Ebola watches the couples seated around her, she can't help but look at Frank she knows to those people around her that they must look just like them like any other couple, but seated next to her is the man who sold her mortality at a game of cards. He drugged her and fed off her and then without even asking her made her a Vampire, she almost wishes he'd just killed her she wishes she was rotten dust like her sisters like her friends.

Ebola has forgotten how boring he can be, that the only thing that ever really kept them together was sex and by the end he was usually to drunk and incapable to fuck her. She smiles remembering all the 'it isn't you' 'that happens to most men…sometimes' conversations that they use to have. What she neglected to mention was the fact that it generally only happened to old men and drunks. He grins back thinking he's said something clever or funny, the likelihood of either is minimal. From the bar he takes her to a grotty little club where they pick up some girl, and then the three of them stumble back to Frank's flat.

'Do you have a bath, here?' Ebola asks feeling claustrophobic being backed up against his bedroom door. He has to think about it for a few moments because he's so pissed he doesn't even know they're in his home.

'…N…o No, I've got a wet rom…'

'A what?' Ebola frowns out of practices of trying to understand him when his pissed.

'Wet you know, wet room like a big shower thingy, I love your hair.' Frank forces her head into his hands yanking at her hair, she struggles and pulls away.

'I just need a shower.' She needs to wash him off, wash Anthrax off, wash her life away and trade it all in for a nice shiny new one.

'Yea sur…sure…sure whatever, you want me to come in with you?' Her eyes widen.

'No.' Ebola almost shrikes, never not in a million years ever.

'Later.' The old Courtesan inside her suddenly comes through she remembers how to charm and to flirt while keeping him at arms length.

'Amy…I've miss missed you.' She's sort of missed him a little bit too; even through she hates herself for it.

Ebola manages to tare his hands away from her long enough to exist into the safety of the wet room, she can smell the water.

'Amy…do you…do you want her?' Frank questions nodding in the direction of the girl passed out on the sofa.

'No, you have her I had one earlier I'm a bit full.' She's lying she hasn't eaten the stranger she left Anthrax for is gone she let him run away.

She locks herself in the bathroom slipping down the door sitting on the floor listening to Frank as he brutally tortures the girl his cruelty has never known any bounds.

Eventually Ebola did take a shower she let the warm water wash over her until the skin on her fingers and feet had turned puckered and wrinkled. She climbed out of the shower pulling a near by towel around her surprised by the fact that there was a towel to wrap around her skinny form at all. The whole flat had a strange other person vibe about it she could smell other people, it was faint but there was the traces of someone else not victims, but someone else living there.

She tried her hair and hung her close up on the nearby radiator to dry, not that they were wet it was just…she wasn't sure what it was she'd just needed to do something until it had been over and the girl was dead, the screaming had stopped.

When she eventually leaves the safety of the wet room she's greeted by the sight of devastation there's glass and blood on the floor. The girl's body is spread out in front of her she stares at it emotionless she looks like all the others, all the others unnamed unknown girls. Ebola wonders if she has…had a family if someone will be texting her, calling her worried for her.

Frank sitting across the room sprawled out with his back against the wall his head resting limply against a nearby speaker, the room is flooded with music everything seems to be vibrating to the base and the beat.

'Do yyou want…' He holds out the bottle of vodka cradled in his lap. Manoeuvring past the body side stepping the shards of glass she falls down onto her knees next to him tucking her feet underneath her pulling the bottle out of his hand. The clear liquid burns in her chest, she drinks more than she should.

'She scratched me.' Frank murmurs sounding a little more coherent. Frowning Ebola runs her slender fingers over the graze on his cheek.

'Self-defence it's not like the old days, I can't fight I don't wanna have to fight them…you know I can't fight never could.'

'You use to fight me.' Ebola motions taking another long sip from the vodka bottle.

'You use to fight me back, that doesn't count.'

'We're fucking messes, you know that don't you.' She mused wondering if she was telling him or herself. He nodded leaning forward planting a parental kiss on the side of her head.

'It's not like it was, is it?' He questions her placing his head in her lap.

'No.' Ebola exhales softly tangling her fingers through his short chestnut locks.

'You don't love me anymore do you?'

'No.' She answered simply still cradling his head in her lap.

'No.'

_Girl I know we let things come between us now,  
but you know I still fall for you each day its true,  
but still I want you by my side,  
if you still want me by your side,  
we can find some way to make things work again some how,_

Anthrax was waiting outside in the limo when Ebola finally emerged, she'd been waiting for most of the afternoon it had been years since she'd been out in the day, the UV protected blacked out windows had shielded her and George from the murders shine of the sun. When she'd seen them she couldn't stop herself she'd flung the car door open and marched across the dark early evening street.

'You bitch!' Anthrax's wail had announced her presence.

'Dee!' Ebola had exclaimed as Anthrax had pushed her roughly out of the way descending on her target punching Frank as hard as she could in the face laying into him with her fists, her ragged breath punctuating the action.

'Dee no…Delia…Delia!'

'You fuckster!' Anthrax shrieked shaking Ebola roughly off.

'I told you to leave us alone!' The brunette warned darkly, staggering backwards Frank fell against the pavement landing hard on his back.

'Amy, Amy!' He cried covering his face as Anthrax kicked him in the stomach, she didn't stop kicking him couldn't stop kicking him. Blood covered his head and face pouring from his nose and a gash on his head.

'I fucking warned you, you fucking prick!' And then suddenly she'd been stopped as a pair of arms wrapped themselves around her trapping her, holding her fast.

'There, there Miss Delia calm yourself girl.' George's voice had soothed her, she tried to fight him off too wriggle away but he was surprisingly strong pinning her down.

Hot angry tears burst from her eyes as she watched Ebola kneeling down next to Frank checking his face and head for injuries.

'Are you alright?'

'She's an animal Amy I know you like a bit of rough, but she's an animal!' Frank gasped as he spat out a mixture of blood and a small ivory coloured tooth.

'Don't.' Ebola whispered.

'Miss Amy perhaps we should go home.' George asked, Anthrax raised her eyebrow it was the first time she'd ever heard him ask a question Ebola always told him.

'Yes, yes.' Ebola got up from her knees, holding Anthrax tightly George steered her in the direction of the limo.

'You're not going back with her, Amy you can't she's dangerous.'

'Stay out of this sir.' George warned through clenched teeth as Anthrax fought against him. Finally he managed to subdue her enough to wrestle her into the car, Ebola followed slipping into the back seat next to her.

Anthrax opened her mouth but Ebola cut her off before she could speak.

'Don't speak to me.'

_Darling I need you to forget everything,  
oh darling I need want you to come back home again,_

'What happened?' Lizette inquired wincing a little at the sound of the loud crash, which emanated from the room across the landing.

'You don't want to know,' George answered back slumping down onto the living room sofa, the three servants all looked at each other listening to the shouts and screaming.

'And Miss Amy stayed all day?' Mrs Pettifer inquired glancing up from her knitting, George said nothing nodding silently.

'Oh no, no, no!' Lizette cried.

'They've never been like this before, they've never argued like this.'

'I don't want him to come back.' Lizette sobbed.

'None of us do dear.' Mrs Pettifer soothed.

'None of us do.'

'Well then, we'll have to stop it before it starts.' George mused.

_Girl i'd like to let you know that although I'm so unkind,  
I'm still fond of you and thats the truth,  
I know I know I can't pretend to know exactly what you want,_

_I still want you by my side,_

_If you still want me by your side,_

_We can find some way to make things work again i'm_ _sure, _

'How dare you!' Ebola cried her normally soft and measured voice rising high out of its normal range sound screechy.

'How dare I? How dare the fuck I? You fucking whore, you fucked him didn't you…you fucking fucked him!' Anthrax accused her thick mascara rolling down her pale cheeks. Ebola turned her back letting her chest rise and fall, concentrating on her own breathing closing her eyes attempting to quell the rage that threatened to spill from her very core.

'The fact that you ain't even bothering to deny it tells me everything!'

'I'm not answerable to you.'

'You fucking should be!' Anthrax grabbed her by the sleeve spinning her round forcing Ebola to face her. They stared at each other it was a toss up suddenly between a kiss or a slap, it ended with the latter. Anthrax staggered letting Ebola slip away from her as she clutched at the side of her stinging face.

'You hit me.' Neither of them could quite believe it, they both blinked silently stunned.

'Get out.' Ebola whispered softly her statement crashing through the silence.

'What?' Anthrax replied her hard edge falling away.

'Get out, I want you out of my house, out of my life! Get your things and go, I don't want you here I want you to leave me…' Ebola swallowed.

'…leave me alone.'

_Oh girl you need to know even though it may not show,  
but i'm still fond you yeah i'm still fond of you,  
oh girl you need to know even though it may not show,  
but i'm still fond you yeah i'm still fond of you,  
oh oh,_


	14. Tourists come and stare at us

_It took a couple of weeks of planning if Anthrax had, had her way it would have taken longer but a plan, the plan had finally come together. The night after the theatre Anthrax was supposed to make a big show of kidnapping Elsie smuggling her out of the back door. Vince had been there, fortune had smiled on them for once and he'd been suffering from a cold it gaze Elise the excuse to take him to work with her. However like so much else it all seemed to go wrong in the blink of an eye. Before Anthrax could get to her the Hitcher had swept Elsie and Vince away taking them along with all three of the Piper twins to a boxing match. Elise loved boxing, all her family had been involved in the sport, she'd even told Anthrax that she'd seen one of her many brothers once punch a man so hard that his legs had turned into trombones. Of course Anthrax hadn't believed her, so much Elsie said had seemed to be ridiculous and born out of her overactive imagination. _

'_Can't you shut 'im up.' The Hitcher had frowned as he'd grown annoyed at the sound of Vince's fractious fidgeting and cries._

'_There, there come on Vince come on my little lover.' Elise had cooed resting her mouth against the top of her young son's warm head._

'_Look, look Vincey that's Jem Smith Mummy's got a lot of money riding on him.' Bouncing Vince on her lap she'd pointed out one of the blood splattered bare-knuckle boxers._

'_Don't listen to her boy,' The Hitcher advised Vince. Through all this Vince had continued to cry, he'd been sobbing away until Elsie had produced the doll._

'_You'll turn that boy into a pansy.' The Hitcher had warned staring at the doll with contempt, the doll in question had long golden ringlets and a pair of white real feather angel wings, from the minute Elsie had given it to Vince the pair had been inseparable._

'_It's just a doll he likes it, you like it don't you Vincey.' She'd waved it in front of his face, giggling through his tears he'd snatched it possessively to his chest._

_The Hitcher had snorted and Elsie had avoided mentioning that if anything was going to turn her son into a 'pansy' or give him strange ideas about gender it was probably the fact that she was shacked up with a woman who dressed like a man. This she'd avoided._

'_I'm gonna take Vince outside I think he needs some fresh air, it's a bit stuffy in here and he's burning up.' Elsie had excused herself, once she was safely outside it didn't take her long to locate Anthrax._

'_What are we going to do?' Anthrax had questioned nervously._

'_Nothing.' Elsie had replied wrapping her arm around Anthrax neck planting a kiss on her lips making sure that she didn't crush Vince who had still been sobbing._

'_Nothing? You've changed your mind?'_

'_No, no I meant we do it anyway…we just gotta do it here.' Anthrax had been doubtful, but the expression on Elsie face had told her that if they didn't do it together now she would have gone ahead and done something stupid and dangerous. _

'_He's got it bad.' Anthrax had frowned as she'd felt Vince's feverish forehead._

'_He's suffering, but it's just a cold he's not really sick.' Elsie had reassured them both._

'_Come on brace-up littleman.' Anthrax had whispered to her son._

_Surprisingly the whole kidnapping thing seemed to transpire without a hitch. Anthrax had grabbed Elsie and Vince, her face covered holding the pair at gun point she'd dragged them out of the packed warehouse and into a nearby waiting cab. It had really happened there would never be any turning back for them now, if the Hitcher ever found them ever caught up with them before they had had the chance to escape to America they'd both known it would be all over._

_It took them a week to stop looking over their shoulders, in that time they moved from hotel to boarding house never stopping long enough to attract any interest. Vince became Tricia disguised as a girl and Elsie started calling herself Polly Truegood. The three of them became a proper family Mr Bob Skeleton, his skittish fiancé and their daughter. _

_The America thing didn't work out quite as they'd planned, Elise had overspent on Vince's clothes and they'd ended up with just enough to keep them in room and board. Anything they had, had they'd had to leave behind so they didn't even have anything valuable to hock or sell for a few bob. _

_In dire financial straights their dream off a new life slipping away daily Anthrax had decided to take a gamble and use the remainder of the money they'd possessed to set herself up as a detective, while Elsie had got a job as a barmaid in a pub which had, had a room for rent above it. The room had been smaller and dingier than the flat above the pie and smash shop, they'd been spoilt with all that space and so many warm open fires. Eventually the Hitcher stopped looking for Elsie, when they'd dragged the body out of the Thames it was too far gone for a positive identification but it had been wearing Elsie's clothes when Anthrax had tossed it into the water. It wasn't murder the girl had been festering and dead for weeks before Anthrax had bought the body from an old contact she'd made in the Stew. Elsie Noir was dead, Vince Noir was missing most probably murdered along with his Mother, Mary McKinley was long since gone the Hitcher wouldn't be looking for any of them._

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'You hit me.' Anthrax had repeated dumbly. Ebola's mouth fell open silently her eyes widening as she'd watched the red mark grow darker. She'd hit her, she'd actually hit her it took a few moments to sink in. She reached out but pulled back before she could touch Anthrax, she wanted to comfort her and she didn't. She wanted to love her but she couldn't. The remorse on her face was quickly swept away by steely uncaring determination.

'Get out.' Anthrax blinked back at her not believing, not able to believe what was happening. What was happening? Was it over? It couldn't be over, it would never end like this.

Ebola suddenly reached out and grabbed her dragging her by the collar of her jacket towards the door of the bedroom they shared. Anthrax was too stunned to fight or struggle she was just swept along by the power of Ebola's anger.

And then before she'd really known what was happening she'd been on the other side of the door, there'd been no Ebola and she'd been staring at the dark wood. Everything after that passed in a daze, Anthrax felt like she'd been split apart as if she'd been a newborn again with her umbilical cord fraying. The other part of herself gone and lost.

'Come on now Miss Delia she'll come round, you'll see everything will be better tomorrow.' George's voice had cut through the nothingness. She was sitting in the back of the limo being driven, she had no-where to go but she was still being driven somewhere. She'd left before she had the chance to collect her things, she couldn't stand being there for a moment longer.

'Here we are Miss.' George had informed her as the car had come to a grinding halt, she strained to see out of one of the dark windows, she caught the outline of a retro looking suburban 1970's house. It was pebble dashed, she shuddered.

'Where, where are we?'

'Well Miss you're at your new home…temporary mind you.' He answered turning in the driver's seat to face her, the leather underneath him squealing as he twisted and moved.

'But I,'

'I got some friends you see and when I told 'em about you they said they'd be more than happy to put you up for a few days, it ain't permanent mind you Miss still it don't have to be.' He whistled optimistically, optimism was something that went against the grain of Anthrax's personality. Before she had the chance to ask anymore questions George had disappeared and her door was flying open.

'Does Amy know about this?' She inquired the cold night air hitting her suddenly.

'Ah…well not exactly Miss Delia.'

'Oh I see.' But she didn't see.

'Miss Delia,'

'Don't, don't call me that.'

'What?'

'Any of it. Call me, call me…' Anthrax frowned it was hard to let go of Delia.

'Call me Anthrax, but just Anthrax I'm not your Mistress we're…equal got that.'

'Equal.' George let the word mix around his mouth for a moment, and unfamiliar word.

'Equal.' He smiled and rung the door bell. Music flooded through the closed door, the large blacked out double glazed windows vibrated menacingly, Anthrax didn't like the idea of A) staying somewhere which had quite so many windows and B) Staying in a house which was situated in a cul-de-sac an actual real cul-de-sac. It was all too lower middle class.

The front door burst open and she caught a few bars of a _Le Tigre _song.

'Watch ya Georgie boy,' A man appeared grinning away, he was medium height and lanky all long arms and legs, with a dark pitted mocha complexion and a mass of unruly black hair. The jeans he was wearing looked as if they'd been sprayed on him straight from a can.

'Alright Jimmy.' Jimmy's eyes moved over Anthrax as he decided upon something, it took a split second for the decision to be decided upon before it was replaced by another bright and more importantly real smile.

'Alright there I'm Jimmy, you wanna come it love.' He invited her holding out his hand, but pulled away before she could touch him staring over the top of her head nodding a George who was behind her.

'The hand thing alright is it, only George said bout the touch and all. That alright through is it?' Anthrax nodded.

'If it don't bother you.' He held out his hand enthusiastically.

'Na love we're all friends round here, I ain't interesting enough to have anything to hide, besides.' Jimmy and George both chuckled an 'in' joke passing between the pair. Anthrax held his hand it was cold and dry the skin was rough and warn, it took a few seconds but it hit her like a ton of bricks the everything, the everything of the life of the man whose hand she was holding. She swallowed when they broke apart she heard the opening bars of some _Los Campesinos! _from what she imagined was the living room.

He'd been telling the truth on both fronts when he said he didn't have anything to hide and the fact that he'd been boring. He seemed to have spent his whole life having drinks in pubs with George. Jimmy likes George that was apparent, Anthrax wonders if George quite knows how much Jimmy actually likes him. He was also a lot older than Anthrax.

'So yeah this is the house, that's the upstairs.' He pointed up the stairs.

'That's the kitchen don't go in there, or out in the garden it's probably best if you just stay in the location of well around here.' Because that's where the thing is, none of them know what it is it's some kind of animal they think it just showed up one day in the garden and then it got inside the house and then…The kitchen door has a heavy padlock and a flimsy chair in front of it.

'So ah you want a little sit down or a drink? Oh ah this, that's the living room.' The living room is larger than Anthrax would have expected the carpet looks like its original to the house it's all orange and brown and swirls, she'd forgotten how ugly the 70's had really been. Its easy to forget the reality of something. There's a faded yellow sofa, a telly, a huge sound system, a bean bag chair and a gas bar fire but that's about it except for the fact that the walls are covered with brightly coloured paintings. The bright colours mask the disturbing content that actually exists within the confines of the paper; there are a hell of a lot of severed heads in the pictures not the house.

There's a girl sitting in front of the bar fire, her legs folded up underneath her as she sits painting away a paint brush hanging out of her mouth. Anthrax knows the girl is called Mina, Mina Patel Jimmy likes her a lot as well about as much as he likes George. When your dead sexuality becomes kind of flexible.

Anyway back to Mina, Jimmy sired her when she'd been studying textiles at St Martin's during the 70's she'd gone missing one night on her way home from the cinema.

'Alright, you're new.' Mina grins up at her pulling the paint brush out of her mouth when she speaks, her brow furrows as she twists the canvas around of the carpet scrutinizing it from almost every angle.

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'_If anyone asks you're Catholic, got that.' Anthrax had informed Elsie, pausing until her coughing fit had subsided her chest had felt unbearably tight and constricted sometimes she'd felt like all the oxygen was being squeezed from her lungs. Elsie had appeared behind her wrapping her arm limply around her neck pulling the cigarette from her blue tinted lips._

'_Why?' She'd questioned taking a long drag from the roll-up._

_Anthrax had giggled she'd never felt so happy, they didn't have anything Elsie had, had a positive aversion to not spending money._

'_Why do you think?' Elsie had thought about it for a moment, it had almost been painful watching her as she attempted to work it out._

'_Oh.' The penny had finally dropped._

_Anthrax had got up from the bed the springs screeching underneath her, casually she'd buttoned up the front of her shirt._

'_Oh Mary, Mary…' Elsie had teased her moaning and writhing around in the centre of their bed._

'_Keep that down, and its Bob remember.' Anthrax had chided her, a smile playing across her features as she did so. _

'_That works too.' Elsie had laughed_

_When she laughed it was like music._

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When she'd first sat down awkwardly in the bean bag chair Anthrax had felt out of place lost in so many colours and strange faces, but it didn't take her long to feel more at home they were an easy going bunch of people and the combination of beer and free blow had helped.

'Anthrax do you want another drink?' Jimmy asked her, she glanced down at the empty bottle in her hands. She nodded lost in the sensations of being able to smoke again, she let the unfamiliar and familiar texture roll across her tongue, why had she ever given up she should never have given up Ebola had made her give up she couldn't stand the smell.

'Get us another bevy, love.' He pointed a Mina.

'Your legs dropped off again or something? Get off your fat lazy arse and get it yourself.' Mina had responded simply rolling her large expressive hazel eyes, Anthrax's watches her its been a really long time since she's looked really looked at another woman, not just in terms of lunch but in terms of well…Mina's pretty but she's not a patch on Ebola, Anthrax likes them light and bubbly or fragile and moody.

'You fucking feminist, if I'd have known you were a fucking feminist.' Jimmy complained pushing himself off the sofa spliff hanging out of his gob as he pulled a couple of bottles out of the mini fridge, which hummed away in the corner of the Formica clad room.

'Like, I'd ever wash your pants.' Mina chuckled referring to something Anthrax has no idea about, another 'in' joke.

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'_Here eat up or it'll get cold, you need to keep your strength up.' Elsie smiled pushing the bowl of steaming soup under Anthrax's nose. She wasn't hungry, she just felt tired and drained she couldn't even get out of bed without feeling like a plastic bag had been stuck over her head, not that such things had existed then._

'_Vince make sure Mummy Bob eats her dinner.' Elsie had told her son who'd been lying in the bed next to Anthrax flipping through the pages of one of her old fashion catalogues pointing at the various items excitedly. And then she was gone back down stairs to finish or start another long shift. This wasn't the life Anthrax had wanted for her, she was meant to be someone to be someone special Elise Noir was meant to be adored by millions but instead the bloom of her youth was rotting away concealed in a dingy back alley pub._

_Anthrax knew she'd been dying it didn't take a genius. It felt like a vice around her heart, she couldn't run she couldn't escape from her own body she'd been trapped._

'_I'm sorry Vince.' She'd whispered softly. She felt like she'd failed them, what was going to happen to them if she died how would Elise cope?_

_Maybe she'd been underestimating her, there'd always been something about Elsie that told Anthrax that if she had to she'd be more than able to survive without her, that Elise and Vince needed her a lot less than she needed them._

_But still she knew she couldn't die like that…_

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They get ready to go out, well they do Anthrax doesn't because she hasn't got anything to change into Mina offers her something but she refuses she's not use to other peoples cast offs.

'Does Mac know you've been making Vampires?' She leaned against George keeping her voice low. George said nothing he simply blushed opened his mouth to speak but then closed it again, turning his face away.

'She won't like it you know.' He snapped then, not in a violent or angry way he just snapped in the way that someone does when they've had something to say for a long time but behind denied the opportunity or the voice to say it.

'Jimmy he's my…' He swallowed hard and then continued. '…my best mate, no-one wants to spent eternity alone do they and it was only the once I don't make a habit out of it.'

The idea of being alone suddenly flooded her it was an old familiar feeling; she could never stand being the one stuck on the outside looking in. She wanted to cry. Her gaze shifts between George and Jimmy and Mina there's a special bond between a Vampire and the one who sired them its stronger than Mother and child you become a living part of one another, your blood runs through their veins and theirs through yours. Anthrax understands for the first time why Ebola can't seem to ever say 'no' to Frank to keep him out of their life. Without Ebola Anthrax feels hollowed out and empty, that's how she must feel she theorizes to herself, without Frank.

Anthrax feels guilty.

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She remembers what it was like the first time she tasted her. That sweet warm river of crimson. She didn't want to hurt her, she never wanted to hurt her but she couldn't fight what she was she couldn't stop herself. That intake of breath, that wince half born out of pleasure and pain as you dig in deep penetrating her soft skin. It was so warm, she was so warm you rested your head against her chin feeling her breath. You stopped yourself you pulled back before it was too late, before you lost her forever. You remember how she looked at you. You remember the choice you gave her, the choice that was denied you that he denied you.

She agreed and your heart soared, you blocked out those thoughts the thoughts that told you there were only two reasons why she was doing this and neither of them were you.

You'd never done it before, but it's like everything instinct takes over. You unbuttoned your blouse and exposed the soft flesh that lay just above your corset. You dug deep opening a hole inside your chest, you search for a moment and then you found it its cold and dead your tore a piece off a piece of your heart and you gave it to her she ate it and from that moment on she was yours and you were hers.

It's easy to take a life you just bite wherever and drain them dry, but it's hard to make a Vampire.

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'_I think she wanted you to have this.' Elsie thought about not taking the money which was being held out in front of her for the briefest of seconds, but its only the briefest of moments she's never been proud and the money wouldn't just be for her it was for Vince as well. So she took it she doesn't bother to count it she knows there more than enough in her hands for the tickets to America, more for them to start a new life. She's being paid off she's not that silly that she doesn't know what a pay off looks like. _

_It didn't feel real, it didn't feel like she was really dead everything feels wrong but Elsie doesn't question it she just rushed home with her son perched awkwardly in her arms and the money burning a hole in her pocket._

_She starts to think about the future, however much she wants to morn the past she's a person whose very soul runs on perpetual motion, she can't stop she has to keep moving forward if she stops and thinks for too long then she might break, she can't break what would happen to Vince if she broke?_

_As she climbed up the stairs to the flat they'd once shared, she knows that there are a lot of people in the world who would be lamenting the fact that they'd ever left their home and family. But for Elsie it had been worth it all the misery and the sacrifices, she had Vince, she had met the love of her life and for the briefest of moments her star had shone just brightly enough to get a by-line in no less than three national newspapers. She knew it was callous, but she couldn't help but smile at the thought of Elsie Noir stage and screen star. It was a fantasy she'd already decided from the moment that Anthrax had died that her and Vince would for ever be known as Elsie and Vince Skeleton, in death she'd decided she'd finally get Anthrax to make an honest woman out of her. _

_The flat had felt cold and empty and for the first time it had really hit her when she closed the door behind them that this was really it, that it was just the two of them forever now. Not even forever though, just the two of them until Vince did what all children were supposed to do and buggered off and started a life of his own._

'_You know,' She'd brushed her hand across her son's chubby pale cheek._

'…_I wouldn't care if you were a pansy.' His head a bobbed as he'd slipped off to sleep._

'_Just as long as you were happy, and…' Elsie giggled to herself as she carried him into what was now just their bedroom._

'…_don't forget what Mummy always tells you about accessorizes. They can really breath new life into a last season look.' She laid Vince gently down in the centre of the bed, watching as he sucked his thumb covering him carefully with a blanket._

'_Never forget your Mummy loves you very much.' She smiled weakly as she brushed her tears away, getting up from the bed she'd moved as quickly and as quietly as she could out of the room closing the door softly behind her._

'_**Dear oh Dear, what have we got 'ere?'**__ Elise blood had frozen in her veins that the sound of the familiar cackle behind her._

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_The only thing she could hear had been the sound of Vince's high pitched screams, Anthrax had forced the door open and found him sitting in the middle of the bedroom she'd once shared with Elsie surrounded by complete and under devastation. She so desperately wanted to pick him up and comfort him but his very presence reminded her of food. It was Ebola in the end who picked him up._

'_There, there.' She'd whispered rocking him in her arms. _

'_What's his name?' _

'_Vince.' Anthrax had answered absentmindedly as she's searched the small space for any sign of Elsie. Ebola avoided mentioning that the scent of fresh death lingered in her nostrils. _

'_Where, where is she?'_

'_There, there little Vince. Dee I think, I don't think we should stay here lets take Vince home with us.'_

_Reluctantly Anthrax finally gave into Ebola's will._

'_I'll go back tomorrow when it's darker, I have to find her.' Ebola had agreed, but deep down she'd known it was hopeless. _

'_What are we going to do with little Vince? He can't stay here its not safe or healthy who is going to look after him in the day, he'll end up with scurvy or rickets or both.' She broached the subject as soon as they stepped over the threshold, it was callous but it was for the best he couldn't remain with them it wouldn't be long until he'd end up on the menu._

'_But Elise,'_

'_Yes I know and if…when you find her we can get Vince back, but you have to find her first Dee.'_

'_But I'm his, he's my son he should stay with me.' Solemnly Ebola had taken Anthrax's hand in her own, squeezing it softly._

'_Dee, Delia this is not an acceptable environment to raise a baby you must realise that.' _

'_I know…I do, but I…I love him I can't…'_

'_Then you should do what's best for him.' Anthrax had known Ebola was right, it was then that they had found it Vince had been clutching the Hitcher's pendant tightly in his tiny grasp. Ebola didn't wait she struck while the iron was hot, Anthrax showed her how to use the pendant she picked Vince up and the next minute she'd been standing in a forest. Thankfully it had been the middle of the night or at least late evening, the moon had been full hanging in a cloudless star spangled sky. In the distance she'd seen the outline of what looked like a large expensive looking tree house. Ebola placed Vince down on the grass next to the ladder, which led up to the impressive tree house she hoped she'd been doing the right thing._

'_Now you be a good boy.' She told him trying not to sound to stern; around his neck she'd hung a tag which read __**My name is Vince Noir. I am a very good baby. Please look after me. My Mummy is…dead.**_

_She heard a noise, someone announced themselves as being Bryan Ferry but she didn't wait she disappeared off into the night leaving Vince behind._


	15. I'm your slave

**Okay so this has been well epic but finally over…**

**I really lurved writing this fic but I know not everyone enjoyed reading it, which is no bad thing although con-crit would have been good…**

**The ending is pretty open ended lol…so u kinda decided what u want 2 happen…**

**I wont write it…lol that's just in ur head…**

**I think the poor opening chapter fucked this fic a bit, but that's my problem. N e way SisiDraig has agreed 2 be my BETA so the next story I write, which is gonna be a HOWINCE…lol…maybe wont be so shit…lol…**

**N e way hoped u enjoyed this, I am sooo sorry 4 poor grammar: D I am totally trying though: D**

**N e way thanks 2 SisiDraig, chugirl 2526, xXxBooshLoverxXx, BeckyRocks-x 4 their lovely reviews: D And 2 everyone else who read it thanks hope u enjoyed it, and it didn't make ur eyes bleed 2 much…lol…: D**

**I don't own this: D**

_Her breath caught in her chest, he stared at her unblinking unmoving just staring. She closed her eyes and opened them again, hoping against hope that it was a dream her own fear playing on her mind, she gasped when she opened her eyes again and he'd still be standing there just staring at her._

'_Please,' Elise gasped backing against the hard wood of the bedroom door._

'_Please, please…' She sobbed, everything suddenly slipping out of her reach her future with Vince. No movement, her heart felt like it was about to explode from her chest, it was like waiting for something the end a smack, a hit, a blow something terrible to happen everything is fear and the fear of anticipation. Elsie eyes darted around the space behind the Hitcher she could see the front door, she could have pushed him away and made a run for it she's fast but she can't leave Vince and she'd never have the time to grab him and then make a run for it. All she could think about was Vince; keeping Vince safe he was so quite sleeping away in the room behind her she wonders if the Hitcher even knows that he's there remembers him. _

_She had to be brave for Vince._

'_How did you get in?' She speaks quietly her voice quivering. He still doesn't speak she wants to cry but she holds it in, she moves away from the bedroom door pushing past him wandering into the next small room which makes up the rest of the grotty looking flat. Its brighter than when they first moved in she's decorated the walls, like she decorates every wall of every place she's ever lived in with music hall flyers, and brightly coloured advertisements, the pictures Vince has drawn are dotted throughout her messy eclectic collage. The walls are like a pictorial representation of what exists on the inside of Elsie Noir. There's no darkness, no realness everything rests and floats on the surface everything is light and bright and lively. _

_The Hitcher gazes at the spot where she had been, it takes her a few seconds but she realises that its not her he's interested in its Vince. Her distraction tactics have failed and he's skilfully manoeuvred her to far away to stop him, she was to far away to stop him. Elsie watches as he twists the door handle._

_She knows what he's going to do he's going to kill him, he's going to take everything away from her because she took everything away from him, she was his everything and when she left…well even Elsie Noir could work out the rest._

_What was originally slow suddenly speeds up; time that is begins to move much faster. Elsie doesn't really think about what she's doing until it's done and its all suddenly too late._

_Running as fast as she could she covers the space between the living room, corridor and bedroom in no time. She launches herself onto the Hitcher's back knocking his hat off pulling at his hair dragging him backwards. With the combined weight the Hitcher staggers out of the bedroom gravity taking over. Briefly Elsie saw Vince still sleeping soundly curled up in the centre of the bed. She's feisty but she's not strong not like the Hitcher it doesn't take him long to throw her off with a menacing roar. _

_Neither of them saw it._

_One moment she was flying through the air and the next, the next moment there's nothing._

_The Hitcher turns half grinning this is a side of the little pie and mash maid he's never seen before, he likes it. He readies himself to fend of another attack enjoying himself deciding that he'd threaten the brat a little more often if that was the reaction it invoked in the Mother._

'_Elsie, Else…Elsie eel.' Elsie's not moving. She's sprawled out on the hard wood floor, he tapped her leg with the side of his heel but there's nothing._

_She's suddenly very quite, she's not a quite girl it was a struggle to shut her up most of the time, but now she's quite._

_And then he sees the blood it runs down across the side of her mouth a faint red line running down her cheek like a single scarlet tear. The pool behind the back of her head suddenly appears spreading out behind her head like a liquid fan. The hard corner of the table, which neither of them noticed his coated with a mixture of blood and hair._

_She's dead. It all seemed so wrong, even to him. She's dead and nothing has happened. She's dead and the world hasn't stopped the noises from the outside world invade the silence. She's dead and there's just nothing it's like she never existed, that it doesn't really matter. _

_He was never going to hurt her, not really just scare her. He'd never have hurt her he just wanted to push her and for her to push him back. He pulls out the three pairs of tickets to America which have been burning a whole in his pocket. He never stopped looking for her or thinking about what he was going to do when he found her. He'd convinced himself that Elsie deserved a new life, why not America she could have been a great Broadway star, if she'd wanted that he would have given her anything to make her happy make her stay with him._

_Still fate works in mysterious ways and dead or alive there's no way Elsie Noir is getting away from him._

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'It's a good job we got out of there when we did.' Ebola muses finding Anthrax outside of the junk shop leaning against the shutters. She doesn't reply in words she just snorts.

'I didn't like the look of that demon.' Ebola frowns knowing she's put her foot in it.

'I'm sure they'll be fine. I mean the idiot will die for certain, but I'm sure Vince will be alright he's…' She wants to say clever, but from the demonstration in the flat she knows he's not.

'…like you.' Anthrax gives her a narrow stare from the corner of her eye.

'Do you blame me?' Ebola questions they've moved a little way away from the shop and they're both standing under the shared spotlight of a street lamp. Anthrax shakes her head meaningfully, Ebola can read Anthrax like a cloudless sky there's nothing hidden she says what she means she doesn't care if it hurts. A sigh of relief escapes her lips, it's what she's been dreading that Anthrax would blame her that she would resent her in some way for forcing her to give up her son.

'He's just like her. It's so weird.' Anthrax exhaled. Ebola nodded, she only had a brief acquaintance with Vince's Mother but she's right he's vain and silly and deluded just like Elise Noir. She could never see what Anthrax saw in her in such a simpering preening girl, Ebola's jealousy bleeds through.

'Why is he so much like her?' Anthrax asks again her voice filled with something close to wonderment.

'She was his Mother, some of it must be genetic I suppose.' Like the stupidity, she bites her tongue before she has the chance to say what she really thinks.

'Are you like your parents?' Ebola shifts awkwardly in the harsh amber light. They never talk about things like this; Anthrax never mentions her past Ebola is out of practice talking about her family.

'I'm not sure; I look a bit like my Mother I think.' It's a lie hiding behind a truth, yes she does look like her Mother and she already knows which of her parents she is more like in personality.

'He's a bit like you too though,' Ebola informs her reaching out gripping her hand their fingers entwining silently.

'You think some of me rubbed off on that?' Anthrax giggled, she's not a natural giggler.

'Oh defiantly.' Ebola leaned in close rubbing her nose playfully against Anthrax's pale cheek. Anthrax had her mind else where glancing up at the gathering swirling green clouds above their heads.

'Looks like there's a shit storm 'a-brewing'.' Ebola stares for a moment and then nods sagely.

'How do you feel about home and a 'take-away'?' She asks emphasising the 'take-away' her fingers acting as speech marks, Anthrax rolls her eyes she hates it when she does that.

'Yeah alright, but nothing from _Dominoes _their delivery boys taste funny.' They link arms.

'I've noticed that, a bit garlicky.'

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Everywhere she looks she's reminded of her, it's even worse that the first time the time when she lost Elsie and everything seemed to fade all the colours going suddenly black. Ebola taught her to love that darkness, but she can't stand it now she feels trapped and sick.

Sometime during the long night she'd found herself lost disconnected from George, Jimmy and Mina lost on a dance floor sounded by writhing sweaty strangers faces. She can't bare it, she stumbles outside the cold air blasting her face the two burly bouncers giving her strange glares.

Everything looks the same, and everything looks different. Anthrax feels drunker that she really is, her head is thumping as she fumbles for her phone. Before she has the chance to dial any number it slips from her fingers clattering against the damp pavement. Awkwardly she bent down to pick it up kneeling wobbling slightly, before she has the chance to retrieve the phone a hand is on it she stares at it, the hand that is. Its familiar, its small the fingers are tapered and pale the skin on the hand seems to glow.

And then Anthrax glances up and everything seems to stop time, life everything…it's her it's really her its Elsie after all this time she's really there standing in front of her holding her phone.

'You dropped this.' Elsie grins, she looks a little different peaceful her hair hangs around her shoulders in rich chestnut ringlets, she's perfect. Anthrax can't move she's just kneeling in front of her, her mouth hanging open staring.

'Bob, you dropped your phone.' Anthrax knows she's having some sort of nervous breakdown, but it feels wonderful. Elise rolls her eyes reaching out pulling Anthrax up onto her feet thrusting the phone back into her grasp. And then she moves away the long flowing emerald green train of her dress catching in the wind billowing behind her.

'_Why then, oh brawling love, oh loving hate, oh anything of nothing first create? Heavy lightness, serious vanity, misshape and chaos in well-seeming forms?' _Anthrax raises her eyebrow; those are very big words for Elsie Noir she delivers them with an ever playful giggle.

They find themselves standing on a bridge overlooking the river Thames, Anthrax can't remember how she got there Elsie leans against the black metal railing her eyes are closed but she's smiling.

'Was that Shakespeare?' Elsie cocks her head to one side opening her eyes.

'That it is.' She says with a faux serious voice. Anthrax's heart aches, she's missed her so much. Elsie suddenly explodes into giggles.

'It's the only lines I ever learnt, a boy taught me them.' A boy seemed to have taught Elsie almost everything over the course of her tragically short life.

'Oh, it's nice to be out.' She sighs stretching her arms high above her head.

'Out?'

Elise shakes her head running her hands through her head glancing up at the stairs.

'The moon look see, I have missed you Mr Moon.' She tugs Anthrax close pointing up at the distant full moon. She feels real, Anthrax rests her head on the back of her neck breathing in her familiar smell, although it's not so familiar. Elise use to smell like flowers but now she smells like fish, she smells like an eel to be more precise.

'Elsie…'

'Ssshus, sshus,' Elsie coos turning in her arms. Their suddenly facing each other it has been a long time since they've bee facing each other. Anthrax knows its all in her head, but for a spilt second it all feels so real. She realises something, she doesn't love Elise have as much as she use to and it doesn't touch what she feels for Ebola it doesn't come close.

'That's okay.' Elsie muses reading her mind.

'I do love you.' Anthrax informs the figment of her imagination earnestly. Elise nods completely understanding.

'I know and I love you too. But maybe you should let me go, I'm tired Bob let me go.' Anthrax feels herself at any moment about to irrupt into a flood of tears but before she does Elsie lips are on hers, she remembers the kiss on the roof and her heart breaks a little more. Elise's lips are soft, softer than Ebola's she's completely confident sliding her tongue inside her mouth, Elise never lacked confidence when it came to things like that, that was always part of the problem.

'You stopped smoking!' Elise exclaims when they finally part.

Anthrax realises that time is speeding up around her again, she's spent her last moments with Elsie talking about nothing when she should have said everything.

'That's all a bit boring though isn't it, feelings and things.'

And then Elise really is gone and Anthrax finds herself back kneeling down on the pavement trying to pick up her mobile. When she finally successfully retrieves it the first thing she does after checking that its actually still working is calling Ebola.

'_Mac, I'm coming home.'_

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Ebola had been in two minds about picking up her phone when it had first begun to ring. She knew it was Anthrax it was just the ring tone that had told her it was Anthrax, it was just that she'd known. She'd stared at it buzzing and flashing next to her the chorus of _Lovecats _by _The Cure _getting progressively louder and louder the longer she'd tried to ignore it.

Finally she'd snapped and answered it but before Ebola had, had the chance to utter a sentence Anthrax had cut her dead.

'_Mac, I'm coming home.'_

And then she'd just been gone and Ebola had been left reeling. She passed the living room moving from the sofa to the coffee table and back again, her hand shoved in her trouser pocket. Ebola felt impotent, being bossed about by Anthrax sent a shiver down her spine. It was a shiver for two reasons firstly the fact that she didn't like being bossed about by anyone and secondly because she does.

'Madam,' Mrs Pettifer's voice broke the pattern of her pacing.

'Yes.' Her voice had sounded strained and a little too high pitched for her liking.

'…Lizette asked me to enquire what you were planning on doing with the boxes in the hall, only she needs to move them so she can hover.' The boxes in the hall belonged to Anthrax; Ebola had spent most of the day collecting together and boxing up all her former companions' belongings.

'Shall I tell her to move them back upstairs?' There was a tone in the older woman's voice that would have told Ebola something was up if she'd been listening, but she hadn't been.

'Yes. No…what?' Ebola frowned as she glanced at her elderly housekeeper who had been standing in the doorway buttoning up the front of her coat.

'Where are you going?' She questioned her thoughts suddenly catching up with her.

'Oh me Madam, oh I'm just off out to the Bingo.'

'The Bingo?'

'Oh yes Madam, Thursday night is always my Bingo night. Oh and Lizette is off out too she said something about an _Ann Summer's _party or some such thing, the silly girl really makes no sense.' Mrs Pettifer had produced a brightly coloured silk head scarf from her pocket as she'd spoken, making her way towards the front door tying the scarf neatly up in a bow under her chin concealing her mass of short grey curly hair. Ebola had followed her shadowing her nervously.

'So it's just George and me then, in the house?'

'Oh no Madam George went out hours ago I rather thing he left with Miss Delia, so you're the only one here.' Ebola had been tempted to ask the old woman to stay but she'd decided against it, and then she'd been alone she'd never realised how big and dark the flat was before…she didn't like it.

Loitering in the hallway she noticed that the three cardboard boxes filled with Anthrax's belongings had disappeared, and the fact that Lizette wasn't around to do any hovering, she'd felt tricked suddenly.

And then she'd heard the key in the door and for some inexplicable reason dashed back into the living room and sat on the sofa staring and listening as the front door had been opened and then slammed shut. There was only one person who ever slammed a door like that. Ebola had jumped up from the sofa and suddenly they'd been facing each other, well not exactly facing each other there was another room and a whole lot of space and furniture between them, but they were opposite. It's only been a couple of ours but Ebola was overwhelmed by the sense of loss and relief at the sight of Anthrax. She felt more than a little bit guilty too seeing the dark bruise that had formed on the other woman's face. She gazed at Anthrax trying to discover from her unreadable expression whether or not she should have been preparing herself for round two.

Anthrax was the one who made the first move tossing her house keys in the decorative glass bowl, which sat on the table next to the door her aim perfect as ever, she'd stalked across the room. Ebola had taken a deep breath and prepared herself for the whirlwind, but when it came it came in the form of Anthrax grabbing her forcefully by the back of her neck dragging her lips forcefully onto Anthrax's.

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'We haven't done this in a long time, have we?' Ebola sighed a wave of pleasure and relaxation washing over her. Anthrax didn't respond in words her mouth busy travelling along Ebola's long swan like jugular.

'You're always bleeding.' Anthrax mused finally, her lips ghosting over the red inflamed puncture marks which blemished Ebola's ivory neck, two long scarlet trails trickling down over her naked skin.

'I know, but I like it.' Ebola informed dipping her damp digit in her own blood popping her finger into her mouth tasting the mixture of the iron and Anthrax.

'But we don't do we?' Ebola continued returning to her original train of thought. Anthrax rolled off of her landing on the plush pillows of their shared coffin, Ebola shifted resting the back of her head on the flat of Anthrax's stomach.

'Urgh, you're heads heavy.' Anthrax chortled.

'I always thought we did this quite a bit.' She grinned glancing down answering Ebola's original inquiry.

'No I don't mean sex I mean this, the talking we haven't done the talking bit for years. You usually start snoring the second you come, once you fell asleep on top of me I was pinned down under you the whole day.' Ebola giggled.

'Hey!' Anthrax frowned as she elbowed Ebola in the side of her head.

'Ow!'

'Shut up, you're such a baby!' Anthrax wriggled awkwardly her face hovering over Ebola's there gaze meeting.

'Where those tweed trousers you were wearing before?' She asked her eyebrow raised, Ebola irrupted into laughter again.

'So what if they were haven't you seen the 2009 _Vogue _lookbook, tweed is going to be big this season.'

'As if, burn 'em.' Anthrax replied as tactful as ever.

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'It's over isn't it?' Anthrax's despondent tone rang out inside Ebola's head, deep down inside she knew it was true it really was the end of everything but she wasn't ready she'd lived for too long and seen too much for it all to end like this, too quickly for her to even catch her breath.

'We could always fight our way out.' She said waving a rusty looking rake in one hand and a thick iron rod in the other. Anthrax who was still crouched on the floor snorted under her breath.

'We'd never make it, there's like a hundred of them out there and the sun 'ill be coming up soon…we'd never find any cover in time.' Even though she didn't know it Anthrax had decided things for Ebola, at the back of the warehouse she'd found something that looked like it had once been the bottom of a lift shaft, it was a tight cramped space which only one of them could fit inside but it was deep enough she hoped to protect whoever was down there from the sun.

Ebola grabbed Anthrax by her arm dragging her up back onto her feet pulling her across the dusty building.

'What, what are you doing?' The younger woman frowned the annoyance clear in her tone.

'This is for your own good, Bob.' Ebola informed and without warning pushed her companion down the dark whole, there was a short shriek and a thud and then just swearing.

'Mac, you coming down or what? Mac!' Anthrax's echo rose up, and Ebola quickly moved away. She felt lighter, if one of them had to die it was better that it was her, she couldn't have lived without Anthrax, but she knew Anthrax could go on without her she'd survived without Elise and she'd cope without her.

'Mac, Mac!' A smile hitched the corner of her mouth at the sound of Anthrax's persistent cries.

So this was what it was like waiting to die, this is what it had felt like for all those whose lives she had stolen. But it probably didn't feel like that, Ebola had always tried to make it as painless and quick as possible, she'd always detested playing with her food. She gazed through the broken slats in the warehouse wall staring out at the hordes of zombies who circulated outside. Ebola was sure she could fight her way out of this she was sure, come on they were zombie the lowest and brainless of the low. She could do this, her hand was shaking as she reached out for the iron rod it weighed her arms down she could barely lift it, she hated the fact that she had always been so physically weak. Everything had suddenly go very quite Ebola had a sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach, she always worried most when Anthrax was quite it meant she was up to something and that had never was never a good thing. The sudden sound of movement behind Ebola told her she was right to have been worried as Anthrax had seemingly dragged herself out of the hole Ebola had dumped her in. She was filthy covered in dust and mud and looked furious.

'Macabre de Coiffure, what the hell was that you pushed me down a fucking hole you jerk!' Ebola rolled her eyes.

'It's for the best, listen to me you can hide down there you'll be okay its deep enough the sun won't touch you.' Anthrax fixed her with an unreadable stare.

'And what about you? What happens to you while I'm cowering in some fucking hole, hiding like a child…a coward?'

Ebola let the rod fall out of her grasp as she quickly covered the space that existed between them, reaching out rubbing her hand over Anthrax's stained cheek.

'It isn't like that you wouldn't be a coward, I was just trying to protect you I don't want to see anything happen to you I…' She swallowed hard keeping her emotions in check.

'You what?'

Her eyes darted everywhere avoiding the one thing she wanted to focus on.

'…I'll be fine, I'll come back and get you I promise.' Tears suddenly brimmed in Anthrax gaze spilling down across her face leaving a trail of her thick black mascara.

'Why can't you just say it?' She wailed finally exasperated.

'You know were going too, well die again and you still can't bring yourself to tell me you love me.' Ebola stepped backwards feeling as if her biggest secret was suddenly on display for the whole world to feast their greedy eyes upon.

'I know that you love me. Why won't you just say it, its three words you don't even have to say the full thing you could just say 'love you', I wouldn't care please Mac!' Anthrax grabbed her by her shoulders dragging her forward so their noses were so close they were almost touching.

'I can't.' Ebola uttered softly the air escaping her body.

'Why?'

'Because, you don't love me!' Ebola broke down pushing Anthrax away.

'You don't love me Dee, you never have,' She sobbed uncontrollably.

'We both know that you're still in love with Elsie Noir that you always have been. I know you've never stopped looking for her, I know that.' Everything suddenly fell into place and Anthrax found herself laughing.

'Don't laugh at me.' Ebola had warned impotently. Anthrax chuckled off her warnings spinning her around wrapping her arms around her waist.

'You fucking mug.' She teased kissing both of Ebola cheeks.

'Get off!' Ebola had wriggled and struggled but Anthrax clung on kissing the tip of her nose and then her forehead.

'I love you, I love you, I love you.' She whispered between kisses.

'I LOVE YOU, Macabre de Coiffure even though you are thick.' Before Ebola has the chance to speak Anthrax silences her open mouth with another kiss, but this kiss is different it reminds her of their first kiss it's all teeth and warring tongues. If she still had breath in her lungs Ebola would have been sure that 'the kiss' would have extinguished the last of it.

'I love you.' Anthrax smiled, as Ebola held her tightly.

'And there is no way in hell I am getting back down that hole so you can fuck off if you're even thinking of suggesting it.'

'But…'

'I reckon we give this fighting our way out thing a go.' Despite herself Ebola cracked the smallest of smiles.

'Dee…'

'I get the rod though; you can have the rake since you're the one who got us in this mess in the first fucking place.' Anthrax lifted the thick iron rod up as if it weighed nothing. Ebola shrugged knowing that it was all hopeless trying to change Anthrax mind about anything always had been, eyeing up the rake she picked it up wondering what the hell she was going to do with it exactly.

'Stay close to me. I don't want to lose you.' There hands entwined their fingers linking.

'Oh god this is so _Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid_.' Ebola shook her head grabbing the rake snapping it over her knee in one fluid motion creating two sturdy clubs.

'This is not the time for Bacharach?' Anthrax didn't reply giving the heavy warehouse doors a hard kick instead busting them wide open.

'I love you, Dee.'

'Fuego!'


End file.
